Sink or Swim
by ChaliceOfBlood
Summary: Sasuke gets challenged by Kiba to a swimming competition. Only problem is, he has no clue how to swim; he resorts to going to going to a swimming school at night. Naru/Sasu
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own the show Naruto or its characters, coincidentally, I do own three of the characters who appear in this plot. So…HA!

Beta'd by: XoXgaaraXoX

* * *

Trained fingers danced over wired strings with skilled ease…not. Each wrong note twanged and reverberated in the still air…followed by a punch to the bed sheets and a disgruntled groan.

So what?

So what if he couldn't play guitar flawlessly?

No one was perfect.

Sasuke Uchiha had to learn this long ago when he was still young, naïve and well, stupid to be blunt. Sasuke once believed that he was the only one who lacked ideal qualities. Of course, this was when his older genius brother, prim and proper straight-'a' cousins, and his stiff-back proud father surrounded him. He hadn't quite realized that comparing himself with overachievers wasn't the best thing to do as an eight-year-old. Thankfully, after years of careful observation and logical reasoning, he'd concluded that his brother couldn't possibly be perfect when he lacked one basic thing.

Character.

Sasuke exhaled a dark chuckle at the thought of his brother's void of a personality. Of course, he hadn't disregarded the fact that he himself was a cold-hearted, unapproachable and generally a prick; except the reality of it, all being Sasuke never claimed to be flawless.

Something his brother did every goddamned opportunity he got.

The snap of another string cracked a hole in his wall of musings. His last thought echoed and nagged at him as he sucked at the blood oozing from his newly formed cut.

Why can no one be perfect?

If we've been molded in God's image, does that mean God's not perfect?

The Uchiha shook these thoughts out of his head as he peered through his wooden-framed window out into suburbia. He definitely didn't know enough about the Bible to contemplate about life and its ways.

As if on cue, a growl erupted from his stomach: an animalistic reminder that it was past feeding time and that he was still human after all. After a moment's hesitation, he uncrossed his legs and dropped his feet to the laminated wooden floor. He trudged over to his desk chair to grab his black sweater that had been draped over it.

It was the type of sweater those wannabe ultra-artistic girls and guys wore during high school. The gay-lord slim-fitting type that seemed to only come knitted or in turtlenecks. His being the former because turtlenecks made his neck itchy.

He hardly went anywhere without the black jersey nowadays. He considered it his armor. In other words, a way to protect him from the stares and leers that seem to creep their way towards him like flies to waste.

Nausea hit the Uchiha without warning. He was left with the feeling that he was forgetting something crucial and it was making uncharacteristically tense. His marred fingers curled and uncurled themselves as he shifted his gaze uneasily around his small room.

Sasuke suddenly had the overwhelming urge to smash his overly pale head against the wall. He'd just remembered the reason why he felt even shittier than normal, the reason why it felt like his stomach was gnawing at his heart or burning itself into bits in a tidal wave of stomach acid. One look at the idiotic poster plastered on his bulletin board in day-glow colors was a reminder of the shit he was about to dive into.

Literally.

The almighty Sasuke Uchiha had a fucking swimming competition on December 30th.

Easy enough?

Problem was that he had no clue how to swim.

It would've been customary for Uchiha children to learn how to swim by age five. Somehow, his idiotic, stick-stuck-up-the-ass brother managed to convince his parents to postpone the lessons. He told them that at age five Sasuke needed time to, "spread his wings, embrace his childhood; have time to run out into the strawberry fields of love" or some fairy shit like that.

This was, ironically, just before his brother decided to pick up a butcher's knife and brutally behead both his parents in the living room just after teatime. So, here Sasuke was, clad in an oh-so-stylish black jersey. Ready to take on the world…

Not really.

To think this had all started when that…let's just call him 'dog-bastard' for now, challenged him to a contest one fateful day in the gym.

* * *

It had been a sweltering hot afternoon in Konoha's local fitness center. While other muscled males (and females) were doing countless laps in the overly chlorinated pool water Sasuke Uchiha, not one to live down his image as the lone ranger, was doing one-handed push-ups on the pool lawn.

"Oi! Prissy-ass," a gruff, slightly throaty voice found its way to Sasuke's ears.

Usually he would ignore the idiotic brown-haired, canine-obsessed moron. However, that usually led to bigger conflicts and he didn't want to draw attention to himself. So he forcefully lifted his head to show he was listening, choosing to continue working out as he did so. Dog-bastard had been leaning against the side of the gym pool. He was still in the water, arms crossed and head lolling lazily on his biceps, an irritating sense of laziness and boredom radiating off him as he stared at Sasuke.

"Let's have a race, you and me. Right here, right now," the bastardly boy said flashing his elongated canines for good measure.

The rest of the gym members had turned to look at their exchange-some pausing in mid-stroke to witness one of the countless fights between the Uchiha and the Inuzuka that had been occurring ever since Sasuke moved into town at the beginning of the year.

Sasuke's usually dormant mind went into overdrive. His passive face screwed up into a tight scowl. If he gave up this challenge now, he would no doubt be crowned 'loser' like all the other wimps who shrugged off the bastard's challenges. And as tough as Sasuke was, there's only so much name-calling one emotionally unstable person can take. If he accepted, however, he'd have to become a champion-style swimmer in the next five seconds no matter how non-existent his swimming skills were. He decided on plastering a condescending smirk on his face for no apparent reason.

The boy glowered at him through one eye. A droplet of water rolled down the eyelid of the other giving him a sort-of beady-eyed, squinted, rabid dog type of look.

Sasuke sighed deeply and shifted his position so that he was resting on his haunches; the stench of sweat and chlorine filling his nostrils as he inhaled and exhaled deeply.

"I didn't plan on swimming today," Sasuke stated simply attempting to get the boy, rightly named 'Kiba', angry enough to get into a fistfight with him or something.

Kiba raised an eyebrow in disbelief, his fingers scraping on the poolside into a curled fist.

"Listen cock-bastard…"

Sasuke bristled slightly at the double innuendo to the insult, self-consciously bringing a hand up to his rooster-tail hair. After much sadistic thought, he settled on glaring daggers at the brown-haired boy and patting around for a nearby rock to throw at his head.

"Ladies…ladies," an uninterested drawl permeated the tension between the boys as a tall, white-haired man with a sweat rag covering his face like a mask slouched his way over to them.

The Uchiha surveyed the man with mild-amusement, his anxiety disappearing slightly with his sudden appearance. The man was wearing a combination of what looked like body armor and clown pants. His hair was spiked upward, and his visible eye was cast downward at the boys.

"I couldn't help but overhear your predicament and thought I could offer my wise guidance." The man reached inside his pocket and grabbed two ridiculously ugly looking flyers, handing them to both boys.

"Let's settle this like men at the annual 'Show-you're-Buff' swim competition in two weeks," the man said, flourishing his suggestion with a charming grin.

The black-haired boy glanced down at the paper as the wacky man handed it to him; his top lip developed a twitch as he observed the funky '70's style font completed with smiley faces equipped with muscular arms on the sheet.

Sasuke curved his neck toward his savior, planning to grace him with an appreciative grimace and a small nod of his head only to find that he had disappeared. Perplexed, he shifted his attention to the boy in the pool who had his eyebrow cocked thoughtfully before nodding eagerly.

He was probably considering that it was a good opportunity to show off the good amount muscle mass he'd built up during the year.

Egotistical bastard.

"You're going down, fish brain."

The Uchiha's eyebrows contracted at this new insult. He wracked his brain for a good retort but the notoriously uncouth dog-boy flopped himself backward into floating position and proceeded to flip Sasuke off with both hands before drifting away.

That was the moment that Sasuke decided that it was probably time to drag his ass home, away from Kiba and away from the gym.

* * *

Sasuke wiped away the small amount of drool that accumulated during his flashback and focused on the predicament at hand. So, he had exactly one week and six days to learn how to swim, and learn how to swim well. Of which, six hours of each of those days was taken up by his job at the Uchiha firm.

He glared at his cherry-wood desk. Glared at the poster some more. Just generally glared.

Well, shit. He hadn't actually considered how screwed he actually was.

Sasuke knew he needed to do some quick thinking.

The dull taste of bile in his mouth was turning him off completely. A night out drinking his worries away wasn't the greatest thing to do in a predicament as such.

Snapping out of his lethargic state, he grabbed the convenient banana-yellow phone book on his desk and flopped down onto the comfy plush chair in the corner of his room. His thin fingers traced the tips of the pages until he found the 'S' section.

Sasuke had never made bold half-thought out decisions like this in his life. As reluctant as he was to admit it, this was all slightly enthralling.

He began scanning down each page with his eyes. He'd obviously have to find a skilled swimming teacher and one that offered their lessons at night. Reasons being that one, he didn't have time during the day and two, because he didn't want to be seen going for swimming lessons at age twenty-two.

His vision suddenly zoned in on the largest sign on the page. It was practically screaming to be picked. The title seemed simple enough 'Dolphin School of Swimming', with a sub-caption of '24/7 Swim Lessons provided.' But as he looked under the title, he had to shield his eyes slightly from the immense weight of the image below.

Even more offensive than the competition paper, the advertisement made him want to spoon out his eyeballs with--well, spoons. Yet strangely, he was compelled beyond belief. He spotted the address at the bottom of the giant pot bellied dolphin picture and quickly jotted it down. He didn't deem it necessary to call the place as there was nothing he could ask really. The only thing left to do was go there.

Hopefully tonight.

* * *

The short walk down to his car was surprisingly hassle-free. No pink haired ex-girlfriends waiting to throw his old possessions at him. No stalker-like teenagers waiting outside his apartment door. And even more surprisingly, no creepy glasses-wearing building superintendent waiting for this month's rent.

He exhaled a worried sigh, bemusedly watching the water vapor disparate into the cold air. To be honest, Sasuke was hoping that the swimming instructor would be young, good-looking and female.

It wasn't that he was homophobic. It was more that he didn't want to be taught by someone his age and male. That would just be embarrassing and well, downright weird. The good-looking part was just an added bonus.

As he neared his black sedan, he checked his reflection out in the car window. His black hair was swept in all directions by the cold breeze and his coal-colored, almost lifeless eyes were staring back at him. His top lip curved into a scowl as he noted the black backpack equipped with a towel and swimming trunks hanging off his arm.

The words, 'young and female' became a mantra in his head while he jammed his key into the ignition.

After a short drive down the main road, an orange and blue neon sign flashing the words, 'Dolphin School!' was the only indication that Sasuke had finally arrived at his destination.

He took a sharp turn into the narrow road leading to the parking lot, and decided to choose a space near to the front of the short building.

Peering out the passenger window and through the open doors, he could see a blue hallway leading to a receptionist's desk. The building was brightly lit and he could almost smell the chlorine even while still in his car.

Sasuke took a deep breath trying to calm his nerves. He contemplated grabbing a cigarette from the cubby-hole, but then decided against it; killing his lungs wasn't the greatest way to prepare for a swimming competition.

Deep breaths, yeah…

All he needed to do was go in there and ask for a lesson. Thinking back, he should've probably called and scheduled a lesson when he had his phonebook. But who really took swimming coaching at night? Besides, he would just have to explain his situation to them. They'd have to understand. Right?

With one last reassuring nod, he pulled his keys out and climbed out of his black Civic, slamming the door behind him. The building glowed warmly, almost invitingly.

Sasuke let the feeling of anxiety wash over him for a moment before he stepped onto the paved walkway. The path was engraved with dolphin-like shapes, and led all the way to the woman at the desk.

Each stride he took to the entrance was painstakingly slow, but he couldn't pull himself to walk at normal pace. Sasuke admitted that he was nervous but he wasn't going to show that to whoever his instructor was. He was going to stay cool, calm and collected like always.

* * *

"How can I help you?"

Sasuke scowled down at the stern-looking woman in front of him trying to think of a way to voice his needs.

"I need to…"

"Are you here to pick up your son or daughter?" she asked, peering over at him over the rim of her glasses.

"No. I'm…"

"Then you better leave, sir. We can't have youngsters dillydallying around here," she reprimanded, scrutinizing his worn-down appearance through squinted eyes.

"Listen, lady," he began through gritted teeth, "I'm here to learn..."

"Learn what?" she asked dumbly.

"…To swim," Sasuke hissed out, his eyes darting around the baby-blue colored room to the empty armchairs.

The woman's dull expression of polite curiosity vanished and replaced by comprehension. She reached into the drawer and pulled out a bunch of papers, a pen and a clipboard.

"Fill these out while I go call the instructor please, sir."

Sasuke grabbed the papers out of her hands and sat himself down on one of the empty navy-blue seats. The anxiety he felt seconds ago was substituted with annoyance and embarrassment all in one.

The blue paint on the walls was having an odd calming effect on him so he settled his glare on the paper in his hands instead of the old woman at the desk.

"Daddy, it was the coolest thing ever! Naruto held me up and I was like…like…Superman! I swear!"

Sasuke flinched as the quiet atmosphere of the room was broken by a high-pitched voice. Keeping his head bowed, he glanced up at the perpetrator.

It was a young man and a brown eyed boy walking toward the receptionist's desk. The boy, probably about three or four, was excitedly pulling on the guy's hand blabbering away at an insane pace.

"And you know what else?" the boy said excitedly.

"What, Alex?" the man questioned, eyes gleaming with withheld amusement.

"Dad, I think Naruto might secretly be the real Superman," Alex stage-whispered, nodding his head.

"Oh, what makes you say that?"

"I just got a feeling," was the boy's simple reply.

Sasuke resisted the temptation to roll his eyes although he was secretly jealous of the boy's childish antics. Most of his childhood was stolen away from him by his brother.

The boy and father, still chatting amiably, left the building and Sasuke was left alone in the room once again. The oppressive silence returned and the black-haired boy sighed deeply for the second time tonight. So, he turned his attention back to the paperwork again.

Time pooled by slowly as Sasuke was about to sign his name indicating that the school wasn't liable for any deaths in their pool. Before he could start the curvaceous 'S', the red-haired, elderly receptionist meandered back in the room.

"The instructor will be here soon," she informed Sasuke, giving him another look-over before sitting down.

"Better be," Sasuke muttered under his breath, finally flourishing the paper with his signature.

"I'm done," He said while getting up and handing her the papers; successfully tripping over a flap in the carpet while he tried to get back to his seat.

Smooth, Uchiha, smooth.

"So, Mrs. Christine, where's the tyke?" a low baritone of a voice sounded just behind him.

"Well, you see…" the receptionist began.

"What's his name now? Uch-hi-huh?" the pleasant sounding voice cracked slightly as it tried to enunciate the syllables of Sasuke's last name.

"It's Uchiha," Sasuke corrected gruffly, praying to whatever-was-out-there that whoever was speaking wasn't his instructor.

Sasuke stood up onto his feet, turning to face his fate.

The gods certainly weren't on the Uchiha's side today.

Standing before him, was a 6'1", approximately 150 pounds of a Greek god-like looking creature. He had sunflower blond hair, wet and spiked so that some hair freefell around his eyes. His eyes were the same light blue color as the room surrounding him with three linear shaped scars on his cheeks. He was built like a swimmer with prominent abdominal muscles and a lean waist. He was wearing a full bodysuit, the kind that surfers wore, zipped down so that the suit was sitting on his hips.

Sasuke tried to regain his composure and muster up the dignity that he had left by extending his hand stiffly.

"Uchiha Sasuke."

The blond only gawked slightly at the paper in his hands before shifting his blue-eyed gaze up to Sasuke again.

"But you're old."

"You've never had young men come in for lessons?" Sasuke asked coolly, crossing his arms defensively.

"We have, but never at your age, actually," the blonde-haired person stated, his tone blunt.

Sasuke squared his shoulders and looked the man up and down. He surmised that they were about the same age, maybe a year or two apart.

"Why aren't you young, beautiful and a woman?" Sasuke blurted out slightly louder than he intended.

"Sorry to disappoint you, tiger. But we've wasted enough time already. Let's go," the man turned and started walking through the double doors behind him.

Sasuke could only stare stonily at his bare back while he walked away.

"Funny, each first meeting with Naruto is never boring," the receptionist said, smiling fondly at Sasuke.

Sasuke grunted noncommittally, repositioning his bag on his shoulders and walking after the rude youth.

* * *

"You can get changed in there. I'll be waiting for you in the pool."

Sasuke found himself in front of an open, fairly clean blue locker. His bag was hanging haphazardly off his fingertips and there was an open stall for him to change at his right.

He could tell he was a hell of a lot closer to the pool than he was before, the smell of chlorine stinging the tips of his nostrils.

Sasuke couldn't decide if he was scared or not anymore. The appearance of the blond instructor had infuriated him into numbness but now that he was alone he felt exposed and restless.

He exhaled resignedly and stepped into the small, empty stall, carelessly throwing his bag on the bench. Sasuke knew now, more than ever, that he couldn't reveal any of his anxiety to the blond boy. The idiot seemed like the type of person to rub that kind of thing in his face. Then again, Sasuke had the exasperating urge to do the same to the moron and he'd only known him for less than five minutes.

The Uchiha stripped as quickly as he could, and pulled his never-been-used-before swimming shorts on. They were slightly loose around the waist, but he really didn't care at the minute. The chemical smell of the place was making him nauseous, and weak. He really didn't want to show weakness.


	2. Chapter 2

Next Chapter to the Sink or Swim series.

Thanks to all who reviewed, and put me on Story Alerts and whatnot!

Beta'd by: XoXgaaraXoX

* * *

With his swimming shorts fully secured on his lean waist, Sasuke stared intently into the dark changing room wall while he took a lungful of air to compose himself. He'd managed to settle in the corner of the changing room in attempt to dig through his bag for cigarettes. Mustering up the courage to actually go to the pool proved to be more difficult than he'd anticipated.

He'd decided that he needed to explain his situation about the competition to this guy and maybe he'd understand. As dense as this dude probably was, he could probably understand the basic concepts of it all.

…Right?

With that being said, a rush of adrenaline surged through the Uchiha while he stood up and made a buoyant grab at his black cotton towel which, in turn, became stuck under his right foot causing him to tumble ever-so-gracefully out of the small booth

Luckily, the blond guy probably wasn't there to see him.

"Nice one, princess."

Lady-luck as well as the gods weren't on his side today, evidently.

He gathered his bearings for the second time tonight, and focused his cool stare on the man in front of him, rising up to his full height while doing so. Although he was slightly shorter than the instructor, he knew that his nonchalant glares got to people easily.

"Listen, I want to get some of this lesson done before my shift's over, so can we please go to the pool, maybe…today?" the blonde's tone was pretty harsh, but Sasuke wasn't someone who was easily ruffled

"I was waiting for you, actually," Sasuke replied, knowing that his response was pretty lame, so lame that he was mentally smacking the inner walls of his skull for it, but the way that the guy's eyebrows contracted in confusion was enough to know that he won the argument.

"Okay, whatever you say. I'm Naruto Uzumaki, by the way," the blond man said, extending his hand toward Sasuke.

"I don't care; I thought you wanted to get started."

Sasuke smirked in silent victory when the outstretched hand rounded into a tight fist before dropping to its owner's side.

"Right, let's go then," Naruto said through clenched teeth.

Sasuke waited until he could see the angular shoulder blades of his instructor's turned back before he let his smirk fall. The inner turmoil he was going through was affecting his in-control façade. Sure, he was still going for the 'play-it-cool' tactic, but he needed to cut to the chase.

"Okay, err…Uzumaki," Sasuke began, silently berating himself for speaking civilly, "The thing is, I've got this competition in two weeks' time, and I've got to beat this guy I know. So, you've got a week and six days to teach me the essentials of swimming and a bit more."

Naruto froze in mid-step just as he was about to take his final stride out the door causing Sasuke to mentally go over all the things he just said making sure there wasn't anything too shocking in there; blue eyes filled with something which looked like pure mirth met with his.

"You want me to teach you how to swim in a week?" Naruto inquired, his low tenor border lining on disbelief and amusement.

"And six days, yes."

Sasuke flinched when an agreeable rumble of laughter filled the room; hearty guffaws followed by deep gasps for air weren't something Sasuke was used to in his presence. High pitched yells of mercy, yes, but this, no. He checked his abdomen to see if there were any weird looking growths that might've caused the blond to laugh.

"Get the fuck out."

Sasuke's eyes widened slightly at the response he got. On any other day, he'd be the one making scathing remarks while the receptor scampered away in fear.

At a loss for words, he chose to watch silently as the blond settled himself against the cool tiled wall for support, while little beads of sweat formed around his suntanned forehead.

"13 days?" Naruto inquired from his spot on the wall, gradually running his hand down his cheek.

Sasuke nodded curtly, taking a sudden interest in his nails. They really were wasting time; he took a noticeable look at his watch before settling his gaze back on the instructor.

"Okay, if we're going to do this, you're going to play by my rules," Naruto said, his powerful blue-eyed stare settling on the Uchiha.

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Sasuke retorted, not liking the concept of following someone else's orders already.

"Well, for one, you're going to pay me more," the blond began, pointing an accusing finger toward Sasuke, "Thirty dollars per session."

"What?" Sasuke squawked, his flow completely thrown off balance.

"You're going to listen to everything I say, no arguing," Naruto continued, as if Sasuke hadn't interrupted him at all.

Sasuke began to grind his teeth, but tilted his head in agreement.

"Well, fuck. Let's go, then." Naruto clapped his hands together and strolled outside with new and annoyingly surprising vigor.

Sasuke stood gaping at the door, an awful sense of dread hanging over him with every step toward the blond and the swimming pool.

"Right, now, all you have to do, is stick your head under the water, and start blowing bubbles."

The look on the Uchiha's face could only be described as pure incredulity.

He had been somehow persuaded by the idiotic blond (meaning, after he refused to descend down the obviously unsafe mosaic steps, Uzumaki fully zipped up his swimsuit and breast-stroked his way toward the Uchiha wholly intent on pulling Sasuke in by his legs), to get into the body of water and now he wanted him to do something this ridiculous?

"You can't be serious," Sasuke deadpanned, taking a cursory glance around the room to check for any escape routes.

The indoor pool was surrounded by four tranquilly blue walls, pictures of dolphins and mermaids occupying each corner. The pool itself wasn't that large, occupying the center of the spacious room; signs indicated that the deepest that the pool went was seven foot, and the shallowest three.

Sasuke was wavering somewhere near the five and four foot region, alternating between clinging onto the side of the pool and glancing up at his bored-looking instructor.

The Uchiha shifted his feet slightly on the floor, deeming it safe enough for him to remove his death grip on the elevated side. Naruto was staring at him expectantly from the other side of the five foot region, unconsciously playing with the zipper to his suit, and waiting for Sasuke to begin.

"You want me to hold your hand while you do it, Uchiha?" Naruto taunted, crossing his arms over his now bare chest.

Sasuke sent a chilling look into his instructor's jaded blue gaze before setting his stare downward at the water. He could do this, for sure. All he had to do was dunk his head into the water and start to…blow?

"Tick tock, tick tock."

Sasuke growled under his breath and rounded his hands into fists. One, two, three…

Suddenly, everything around him was blue. It was curious, really. The way each bubble floated up, Sasuke found one that he liked in particular and watched its journey as it rose. He liked the feeling of coolness around him particularly the way it felt like there was no such thing as gravity. He liked it so much that decided to he lift his feet off the ground, just to see if he could. It almost felt like an acid trip; everything around him was so real yet so surreal. Nevertheless, as quickly as it came, everything seemed to drift away as he felt two strong arms hoist him up by the armpits, and he was suddenly shaken into reality.

"Sasuke!"

Large, warm hands clasped his shoulders, violently shaking him back into consciousness. The Uchiha vaguely noted how long each of the Uzumaki's fingers was. His last girlfriend's hands were so small and delicate, but Naruto's hands were far from that. He vaguely entertained the thought of Naruto's fingernails donning pink and yellow nail polish like she used to wear.

"Sasuke, don't die!" Naruto cried dramatically, pulling the black-haired boy into a bone-crushing hug.

"Yes, sod off, I'm fine." Sasuke grunted, shrugging the invading arms away from shoulders.

Spluttering slightly into the back of his hand, the black-haired boy backed up against the pool edge for support. He had no clue what'd happened just there. One minute he was dunking his head in the water and the next he completely lost himself in an odd way.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

Sasuke grunted slightly as his vision was completely filled up with concerned piercing blue eyes. He had the sudden urge to punch the guy away, but just as he was about to follow through with this evil thought, his wrist was caught in midair.

"As much as this might destroy whatever self-worth you have," Naruto began, smirking slightly at the baffled look the Uchiha was giving him, "I think I might go ahead and really hold your hands while you do it."

"No, I refuse."

"Sasuke," Naruto continued, his smooth voice lowering slightly, "We have five minutes left of this session. If you want to get this done, you'll listen to what I say."

"Uzumaki, don't think I'll just stand here and be treated like your fucking bitch," Sasuke spat out, pushing the instructor away.

"Fine, forget it. Get out of the pool," the blonde-haired man growled out while elbowing his way past Sasuke to the edge.

Sasuke watched in disbelief as the instructor poised his arms at the side of the pool intending to climb out.

"No, wait."

Naruto turned unhurriedly around to face Sasuke, a pattern splayed across his features from the water's reflection. The Uchiha felt his cheeks burn in embarrassment as he attempted to form an apology. He didn't want to come off sounding like a total queen but at the same time, he knew he needed Naruto to win this competition.

Knowing this was the only thing that was keeping him from walking out right now.

"N-Naruto," Sasuke began painfully, stuttering in attempt to say the Uzumaki's first name for the first time, "I'm not going to beg you, but I just—really…need to win this competition."

The blond-haired man scrutinized Sasuke for a moment or two. The Uchiha huffed slightly and looked away. That was the closest he'd come to pouring his heart out to someone (as weak as it was) and he could already feel the clawed fingers of vulnerability settling in. It was a feeling that he'd only felt once before in his life.

Sasuke flinched as two slightly calloused hands grabbed his own unceremoniously. He tore his eyes away from the spot he was blankly staring at on the wall and started to pull his away out of the tight grip. Two sapphire blue eyes stared down at him seriously, and the energy to fight ebbed out away gradually.

"We're down to three minutes now, Uchiha, and we're not leaving until you've got this. So, let's do it," Uzumaki said, loosening his death grip on Sasuke's fingers slightly so that he was merely holding them.

As corny as Naruto's last statement was, Sasuke shivered very slightly as the skin on Naruto's hand gently, but insistently pressed against his. He wanted to hit his head against the bare chest in front of him from the humiliation, but settled on screwing his face up in a determined grimace.

"Okay, on the count of three, we're both going down. Ready?"

The Uchiha nodded, grinding on his back teeth.

"One, two, and three…"

Once again, Sasuke's vision was shrouded with blue. This time, though, everything felt more real. He was completely aware of the tan hands still gripping his, and the fact that the boy in front of him was adamantly mouthing 'blow' to him. The situation might have been humorous to an outsider, but the Uchiha was set on getting this right.

Unfortunately, all Sasuke managed to do when he opened his mouth was swallow copious amounts of water. As appealing as chlorinated water might appear to be, it isn't the greatest substance to drink. As they resurfaced again, Sasuke wrenched his hands away. He choked up some of the delicious water and hacked.

"Again."

Sasuke paused in mid-choke to shoot a disbelieving look at his instructor when the words fell from the blue-eyed boy's mouth, but before his indigence could be voiced, his hands were grabbed even more determinedly and they were both under again. For the second time Naruto was unwaveringly mouthing the word to him; bubbles emitted from his mouth each time.

The sensation of understanding shot through the Uchiha like a bolt of lightning.

Sasuke yanked harshly at Naruto's hands, taking care to almost crush the appendixes with his grip. Pushing them both upward with his legs, they broke the surface of the water.

"Sasuke, what the fuck are you doi—

But before Naruto could finish his question, Sasuke pulled them underwater. Completely engulfed by the liquid, he formed his mouth in an 'o' form and began saying the word that led him to his initial discovery.

"Blloooow."

Bubbles shot up in every direction and Sasuke's vision was flooded. In shock, he groped around for support and managed to feel the squashy surface of what he thought to be Naruto's arm. As awkward as the circumstances were, Sasuke was silently whooping for joy at his success.

Sasuke would never admit it to Naruto's face, but that was a pretty smart way to teach him how to do it in such a short time.

After emerging again, Naruto pried Sasuke's clasp off his arm and shot him a toothy grin.

"Man, Sasuke. How'd you finally get it right?" the blond man questioned, running his hand through now damp golden locks.

"Well," the black haired boy began, "I just followed your dumb directions and actually said the word 'blow'"

Naruto's features scrunched up in complete confusion. Sasuke, suddenly feeling slightly unnerved, continued to stare back at him as if he'd just said the most obvious thing in the world.

"I never told you to say the word—

"Mr. Uzumaki, the next swimming instructor is here."

Sasuke wanted to smack that confused look into the side of the pool, but decided to vent his frustrations at the blue-eyed idiot by attempting to storm (albeit slowly) out of the pool.

The elderly receptionist shot him a disapproving look as he grabbed his towel and pushed past her.

The nerve of that idiot! Here Sasuke was, thinking that Naruto was some kind of genius in his clever innovative instructions, and all that time he was just being…

What exactly was he being?

Naruto didn't even give him instructions on how to actually blow the freaking bubbles. Did he think that Sasuke would figure it out for himself, or was he really just an inadequate instructor? Either way, the Uchiha bathed silently in his victories. Although they made minimal progress, he felt content in actually learning something.

The short drive back to his apartment was filled with thoughtful contemplations. Truth be told, that little occurrence in the swimming place was probably the most human interaction he'd taken part in the entire year he'd been living in Konoha.

Sure, there were the brief interactions with Kiba, but those were mostly manly grunting cavemen-type battles. There was no need for real articulation. The whole exchange was equivalent to comparing the size of each other's cocks to see whose was bigger.

Sasuke grinned sadistically at the thought as he reversed into his parking space. He would totally win a cock comparison fight. Or maybe that was just what his own manly pride was telling him. He decided not to ponder on that notion any longer.

The Uchiha slammed the car door behind him and walked into the respectable looking apartment building with his fingers interlaced and behind his head. He vaguely wondered how long he was going to stay in Konoha. He hadn't settled into a final location for more than a year in the last five years because he always felt like there was something missing.

"Oh, Sasu-kee."

Sasuke uttered a quick "Oh, shit," before he whipped around, and made a violent grab for his keys in his pocket. After he managed to fish it out, he attempted to shove it through the keyhole.

"You can't hide from me, sweetie-pie," the high-pitched voice chided, followed by a series of tsk'ing sounds.

The Uchiha desperately jammed the key further into the hole, twisting and turning it into surrender. Thoughts of masochistic castration rituals flitted in and out of his mind as the tsk'ing got closer.

Suddenly warmth enveloped on his shoulder and Sasuke resisted banging his head against something for the third time that day.

"Sasuke-poo, you haven't even given me a chance to give you back all your clothes."

Although her voice was sugar-coated, he could distinctly hear the tone of pure steel.

"Sakura," Sasuke's voice betrayed none of the pure displeasure he was feeling right now. Thankfully it remained offhand and indifferent—the type that always seemed to infuriate her when they were dating.

The hand on his shoulder clamped down hard, and Sasuke could've sworn that he'd been pushed down an inch further into the floor. The Uchiha half-heartedly attempted to unlock the door again before he heard unconcealed snickers from behind him.

"So eager to get away, Sasuke…? You were always one for abandonment," Sakura said, her voice laced with unrestrained anger and resentment.

The black-haired boy flinched when he heard the unmistakable pop of knuckles being cracked behind him.

"You see…what that was—uh," Sasuke rattled the doorknob desperately, wishing for it to open.

"What was that fucking excuse you gave me? 'I need time to myself, and you just take up way too much of that time,"' she spat out, swinging Sasuke around to face her.

Sasuke was whirled around to face the fuming young woman in the face. His hand, with key in hand, still planted on the doorknob.

Her normally dull green eyes were aflame with blatant anger. Her usual attractive face was screwed up with such wrath that Sasuke actually took a few steps back to create some distance between them.

"Hah, and to think, I was the one to help you settle into this crappy town," she began, gesturing around the cramped carpeted hallway of the apartment building, "And now you're going to pay, Sasuke."

The Uchiha wracked his brains trying to think of a solution. He'd already decided that he was going to have to catch her off-guard for a while, but the solution he had in mind wasn't foolproof.

"Sakura, the truth is," Sasuke softened his appalled facial expression into one he hoped was seductive.

The black-haired boy craned his neck so that his head was hovering somewhere near Sakura's right shoulder, all the while jiggling at the lock behind him.

"I…still," Sasuke whispered, hearing the distinct catch in her breath as he leaned closer to her ear.

The tell-tale clicking sound was covered as Sasuke gave a dramatic sigh.

"I still hate you, sucker!" Sasuke yelled immaturely, twisting around and flinging the door open. Without checking to see her reaction he slammed the door shut, and placed the door chain attachment into its lock.

He could hear the muffled cries of, "You're going to pay for this, Uchiha!" as he snickered and dropped his keys on the wooden coffee table.

Sasuke vaguely wondered what the hell she was doing outside his apartment at two 'o' clock in the morning, anyway. There was no reason to hide the faint smile that caught on his lips when he recalled how much power he still had over her.

The Uchiha could be described as a control-freak, and he would admit it, damn it.

That's probably why tonight he felt so vulnerable and exposed; which also was coincidentally the reason why he felt like he'd achieved something so great no matter how small and insignificant it might've seemed to an outsider.

Of course, he didn't feel grateful toward that blond bastard anymore, because he hadn't helped at all–except to make Sasuke's experience even more awkward. This was quite a feat, considering how awkward the circumstances already were.

The Uchiha stripped off his sweater and pants, and toddled over to his small bathroom to shower. Lately, he'd gotten into the habit of kicking off his clothes before he got to the bathroom itself. Considering he never got guests (except for the odd visit from Sakura, and the landowner), it never seemed like such an absurd idea.

Wrenching back the shower curtain, he adjusted the hot and cold faucets and stood inside the tub expectantly with his face turned upward. The cold spray hit him full on in the face, but Sasuke didn't move a muscle. Most people would've at least sped up the warming of the water process by turning up the hot water, but Sasuke just stood there letting the spray hit his face.

That's it for now, hope you liked. :


	3. Chapter 3

Sasuke awoke with the feeling something huge had smacked him smack-dab in the face, kicked his forehead in and finished by vomiting in his mouth. The description seemed graphic in his head, but an accurate depiction of his condition.

The Uchiha groaned stifling a yawn behind his hand.

Sasuke couldn't say that he woke up every morning feeling refreshed. Heck, he hardly got up ready to face the day. Today though, an awful nagging feeling gnawed away at him, digging its jaws deep within his mind: the distinct sensation that he forgot something.

On any normal night, his dreams would be bland. One could go as far as to say unmemorable, usually about the previous day's activities, a recap of going to work, visiting the gym, buying groceries and so on.

So when Sasuke awoke this particular morning with a familiar tingly feeling dwelling somewhere near his crotch and his entire body drenched in a cold sweat – he was generally wary of what could've caused such a physical reaction.

The Uchiha ran a frustrated hand down his bed sheets, wiping off some of the excess sweat on his palms. With a quick, precise yank at the duvet covering his lower body he discovered that, sure enough, junior stood at attention and waiting to be tended to.

Twenty-two years of suppressing most of his desires led to uncontrollable bursts of sudden sensation. Occasionally, he'd lose it and make a bold decision like moving to another town. Yesterday he'd felt strangely compulsive, and agreed to the idiotic suggestion of competing in a swim race even though he didn't know how to swim. In hopes to save his sanity, Sasuke fought desperately to start thinking rationally.

The black-haired man rolled his neck stretching his strained muscles and with a quick twist of his upper body he got rid of the cricks in his lower back.

So far, he'd come to the conclusion that last night…he'd had a really weird, prepubescent-type wet dream – that was a given.

The only problem was he couldn't figure out what it was.

He had the indistinct feeling that if he kept on thinking about what the dream was about, he'd soon forget it completely.

With a perturbed shake of his head, he spared a lazy glance at his bedside alarm clock: the numbers 6:30 blazed back at him in clear cherry-red digits.

This all summed up the fact that Sasuke only had fifteen minutes before he had to be at work.

The almighty Uchiha encountered an ultimatum: he could either take a quick shower or take a quick wank. Although the latter seems more appealing, both are cumbersome activities, and Sasuke had limited time.

So Sasuke chose the unmentioned third option – willing it down.

To most, this would've seemed like the most harrowing option of the three, but to Sasuke's perverted sense of mind the most difficult option was the easiest.

This was all very confusing but Sasuke decided to cease thinking there. Instead, he focused an evil glare on his penis which, surely enough, wilted under the enormous pressure of his killer scowl.

The Uchiha sent another sidelong glimpse at his clock noting that he'd lost five minutes to this event.

In record time, he scrambled out of bed, blankets and sheets kicked out of the way. His room was a blur of royal blue as he rushed to the bathroom: brushing your teeth and shaving at the same time might've seemed like an extraordinary feat to some, but to Sasuke Uchiha – it was another ordain task.

A reluctant knock at his door indicated that his carpool driver had arrived at his apartment.

Sasuke lost some of his fervor as he realized he would have to skip breakfast.

While throwing a crumpled pair of pants as well as a shirt on, Sasuke ambled out of his room with his collar popped and tie undone. He maneuvered himself into a backward roundhouse-kick type position so that he could turn the doorknob with his ankle and still manage to do up his tie.

He'd known that those after-school karate lessons would come in handy some time in his life.

The Uchiha finished his knot with a triumphant grimace and turned to face his visitor.

The lean man in front of him held the most uninterested expression even after Sasuke had given a small bow due to his efforts. He stood aloofly with one hand stuffed deep into his pocket, while the other tucked a loose strand of black hair into his small ponytail.

"Ready to go?" the man questioned, a thin eyebrow raised suspiciously.

"Of course," Sasuke replied, his face marred with a frown.

* * *

The walk down to the car park was spent in pensive silence. Sasuke was resolute on finding out what his dream was all about, while his co-worker, carpool driver and comrade, Shikamaru Nara, made strange grunting sounds.

As they reached the car Sasuke placed his hand on the black latch of the green Banshee, giving a confident tug only to find it locked.

"I don't understand you," Shikamaru stated suddenly, placing his hands behind his head and looking upward thoughtfully.

"What do you mean?" Sasuke questioned impatiently, tugging the handle again but to no avail.

"Your father used to be the head of the goddamn Uchiha Law Firm, you have the opportunity to control it, but you don't," Shikamaru muttered almost inaudibly, "Why?"

Truth be told, Sasuke had been waiting for this question ever since he'd started working at his dad's old law firm–ever since he'd begun, people were curious as to why the head attorney's office was in Orochimaru's slimy hands instead of Sasuke's own.

"I'll tell you some other time," Sasuke replied curtly, shaking the car handle violently to get his point across.

"Whatever," Shikamaru exhaled quietly. He resignedly pressed the unlock button on his car-keys and slid onto the leather seat of the driver's side.

Sasuke winced as his stomach gave an almighty pang. He took his place next to Shikamaru begrudgingly searching in his pockets for any spare candies. He had forgotten to eat yesterday in all the hype and understandably, through the chaos of this morning, he was way too rushed to consume anything.

"There's a granola bar in the cubby hole."

A piercing look was sent in Shikamaru's way before Sasuke popped open the compartment, placing his hand within. With a mumble, he successfully withdrew with a rectangular granola bar.

"How did you—"

"The growling is a hell of a lot louder than you think," Shikamaru replied dismissively.

The Uchiha wasn't fully convinced. He'd suspected that Nara Shikamaru was some sort of psychic ever since he'd moved. He'd always known the weirdest things.

Ever since that faithful day when they'd met each other in the halls of the apartment building and found out, shortly later, that they were working at the same place. They decided, with as little words exchanged possible, that carpooling was the best option because it would save gas, and eventually money. This had blossomed into a sort-of companionship—except neither of them liked each other very much, so instead of being a friendship it turned into mutual tolerance. But somehow, Shikamaru had always known when Sasuke would be late, coming directly to his door as of recently.

Sasuke, being who he was, didn't appreciate this most mornings. However, somehow he didn't have the energy to argue with Shikamaru because being around, what could be, possibly the laziest person on the planet, tended to eat away at your energy as well. He was surprised that Shikamaru bothered to get out of bed at all, but the man had the tendency to have this kind of _diligent energy_ when he wanted to get stuff done and out of the way.

So, in other words, the Nara was a walking contradiction: hardworking in his own special way, but incredibly lazy at the same time.

The slamming noise of a door woke Sasuke out of his musings, and he shook his head in irritation to find that Shikamaru was already slouching his way toward the giant building behind the car.

Sasuke hadn't expected the lethargic man to wait for him, but the guy could've at least given warning that they'd gotten to the place.

Digging into his pocket for the pack of cigarettes that was bound to be there and a lighter from the other, he hopped out of the car, shutting the door behind him with a kick of his foot.

He smirked at the small dent that he'd left at the corner of the car door while he ambled off with a smoke hanging lit at the corner of his mouth.

* * *

The short hike to his desk was something that came automatic to him in the last few months. He'd always get an uncontrollable shiver every time he had to walk past Orochimaru's office; the guy was a complete creep.

Whenever someone strolled passed him, or just peeked into his office, Orochimaru would leer unabashedly at them, and then he'd do this odd thing where he'd stick out his tongue as far as it could possibly go and lick the area surrounding his mouth.

He constantly said, and reiterated, that he had a saliva problem. Apparently sticking his tongue out was the only way to dry the excess moisture. Sasuke figured that he was only taking extra precaution to be creepy.

It definitely worked to scare though. Most of the junior employees nearly wet themselves when they had to enter his office and the senior staff found their own little ways to avoid him. The down part was that most of their methods usually entailed talking through his irritatingly loyal personal assistant Kabuto Yakushi.

As Sasuke reached his desk, he sat down neatly at his office chair before face-planting the clutter of papers on top of it. After he'd finished his cigarette, the entire issue about the dream was worrying him again; he knew (and partially hoped) he hadn't involved himself in any sexual attachments nor had he been looking at porn or anything, lately-so why the weird boner this morning?

He mentally went over the things that he did yesterday: woke up, brushed his teeth, and went to the gym, toddled off for swimming lessons, bought a bottleful of liquor at the local 24-hour store, gotten completely smashed...

Sasuke groaned aloud at the thought of going for swimming instruction again tonight. He didn't know how he was going to stand an hour and half of Uzumaki for thirteen days. The guy had a way of being extremely annoying in his idiocy. He was so adept that he made you feel slightly moronic yourself. All the same, Sasuke had to grudgingly admit that he felt a sense of good-will radiating off of him.

Thinking back, the conniving bastard did ask for more money. Maybe Sasuke was giving this guy too much credit and in reality he was a low-down rodent like the rest of this town. Although, saying that wasn't very fair of him, Shikamaru wasn't too bad.

The Uchiha could feel pressure building behind his eyes, while his eyelids grew heavier with each blink. It was a strange time for a hangover to fully kick in. With a lift of his head Sasuke could see a pile of paperwork that his boss, Hyuuga, had probably dropped by for him to sort out.

Taking a job as secretary to Neji Hyuuga was probably the stupidest thing he could have ever done. In fact, every morning he inwardly cringed as the man's pristine features came into his vision.

Fortunately, the Hyuuga was probably preparing for his huge case that was coming up and would leave Sasuke alone for the bulk of his working day.

Sasuke settled himself even more comfortably into his make-shift pillow of papers and settled down for a nice refreshing nap.

* * *

Sasuke distinguished that the room he was in was dark, cool and the walls were a brilliant shade of pale blue. He had a vague idea of how he got there, but all of his thoughts were far from fully formed.

His primary senses were dulled, but he could still feel some sensation; he was obviously on some sort of subconscious level.

A gigantic circular pool lay in the middle of the room, and when the Uchiha edged closer, he noted that the body of water looked like it didn't have any bottom. It was just a gigantic hole in the ground filled with liquid. His skewed sense of logic told him that the hole most likely reached the core of the earth.

Foreboding hung over Sasuke like a heavy cloud as he neared the very side of the fissure, he had the sudden urge to back away as far as he could, but curiosity was stronger.

A slight movement in a corner of the room caught his attention abruptly. The corner was shrouded in absolute darkness as if the dim light of the room didn't seem to reach it.

His instincts told him to investigate, but the hole beckoned even more seductively.

Again there was movement, this time it was more energetic, more deliberate.

With one final glance at the giant pit of liquid, the Uchiha figured that it was probably time to go check out what was going on. He wandered closer to the poorly lit crook–each step he took echoed off the walls.

"Sasuke..."

The voice was barely above a whisper but danced around the room as if it had been repeated over and over again.

Sasuke flinched as heavy breathing reached his ears. Fear enveloped him for an instant, but he pushed closer to the meeting of the two walls.

As he drew nearer, a spotlight hit the crevice. Sasuke shielded his eyes with his forearm and blinked until his eyesight adjusted.

He could make out that it was a man. A man who was leaning against the wall, sitting hunched over with his right knee bent and the other one stretched out, his head was resting in the crook of his elbow and both were comfortably settled on his right knee.

The black-haired boy's eyes widened almost comically as the sight before him became resolutely clearer.

The hair, an unrecognizable blur before, became blonder, and unrulier. A once shadow covered face sharpened into distinct features: whiskered cheeks and azure eyes. His white teeth were digging into his lower lip and that wetsuit was sitting comfortably on his waist again.

Sasuke's body went into complete shock as he realized what the man was doing in front of him, and it struck him why the other man's hand kept on disappearing behind his inner thigh.

"Sasuke, please," his instructor panted out, his eyes shifting upward to look into the Uchiha's eyes.

The black-haired boy's horrified expression only grew larger as he realized his own hand was lifting up and drawing him closer to the man in front of him, it was almost like Naruto held some kind of magnetic force.

"Sasuke!"

Naruto's voice became exceedingly needier, while his hand moved faster. Sasuke gaped slightly as he began heat plummeted through his own body as it stumbled after his hand.

"Uchiha!"

The skin between Sasuke's eyebrows creased, as his hand went straight through Uzumaki's now transparent body. He batted it back and forth but there was absolutely nothing to touch. What was even more perplexing was that he could clearly hear his name being repeated over and over again, except this time, the voice was commanding, with an arrogant touch to it.

And as suddenly as it came, there was a rush of colors passing him and he could feel himself being sucked away from the inner-realms of his mind and surely enough, he was facing his office wall again: his paperwork to the left of him, and his ancient computer to the right.

"Uchiha, if you don't turn around this instant, you're fired," the voice behind him stated bluntly.

Sasuke stood up in the process of giving Hyuuga a piece of his mind, but he soon discovered that he had a bit of a problem that would be pretty awkward to face his boss with.

Somehow, Sasuke had developed the sexual drive of a frat-boy in the last few hours, so chances were he was going to be popping a boner every time something even mildly sexual occurred to him.

Erections usually don't follow the strange, homosexual dreams of a straight man, at least, that's what Sasuke thought, and he wasn't going to let it get to him right now.

So with the true pride of an Uchiha, Sasuke swung around – erection and all – to face the silently seething Neji Hyuuga.

"Is there something in your pocket or are you just ha—"

"Save the jokes, Hyuuga, what do you want?" Sasuke asked, the tips of his ears minutely turning red.

"You need to learn some respect, Sasuke, especially when speaking to your superiors," Neji chided, the corner of his mouth upturning into a condescending smile.

The Uchiha glowered but Neji showed no signs of giving up.

After fifteen seconds of complete silence, the black-haired boy rolled his eyes in defeat and broke the silence.

"Okay-Mr.-Hyuuga," Sasuke began, gritting each word out between his teeth, "What-do-you-want…sir?"

"I need those papers sorted through by tomorrow, some of them are crucial for the case. Just separate the useful evidence from the…non-useful," Neji said, loosely indicating toward Sasuke's desk with his hand.

"Wouldn't it be better for you to do it? Seeing as you're _supposed _to be the lawyer?" Sasuke queried caustically, his arousal quickly disappearing as he spoke.

"We all know you have a law degree, Uchiha, you're perfectly capable of handling it," his boss snapped out while retreating sourly into his office.

Sasuke knew that that was some sort of compliment in a strange way, that Neji recognized that he wasn't just some lowly secretary. But that wasn't enough for the Uchiha to start liking the guy, no way. It took a lot for someone to get on his good side.

Even so, the black-haired boy was thankful for the distraction. Having weird sexual dreams about your moronic swimming instructor was enough for anyone to want a distraction, really. Sasuke could only imagine how awkward it was going to be for him tonight.

* * *

"Listen, Sasuke, I'm not asking you to climb Mt. Everest, here," Naruto bit out exasperatedly.

After Sasuke had left work, he'd spent the next five hours of the day updating Neji's paperwork and after another five hours of nonstop working at home, the time had come to meet Uzumaki at the dreaded pool.

Except, this time his instructor wasn't asking him to do something like go underwater for a few seconds. He was asking him to goddamn take his feet off the ground and float on his mother fucking back. Why was he having sexual dreams about this guy again?

Sasuke ceased the long list of expletives that were running through his mind to think sensibly. He'd seen it a bunch of times on TV. During backstroke they'd zoom across the pool and once they'd reach the end they'd back roll to get back into backstroking position.

"Look, Sasuke, it's really not that hard."

The black-haired boy focused his gaze on Uzumaki, who was floating comfortably on his back and shooting a bored look in Sasuke's direction.

But it was the second part of Naruto's statement that had him groaning aloud '…it's really not that hard,' what was the idiot thinking saying something like that? His own thoughts flitted between homoerotic dreams and the fact that he was about to face the seemingly impossible.

Before he could retort, a strong clasp covered his forearm and he was forced further into the deep-end than he already was.

"H-Hey, stop that…Uzumaki!"

"Trust me, it'll be easier to do it here, listen, this is what I'm going to do," Naruto began, while swiping wet dregs of hair away from his eyes, "I'll start off with both hands on your back, then one, and we'll see how it goes from there, okay?"

"Wait, now, what are you doi—"

Sasuke found himself being hoisted off his feet until his entire backside was against the water. Naruto's hands were positioned on his back: one resting in the middle and the other precariously low to his bottom.

"Let me go you…you…homo!"

The Uchiha flinched when he felt Naruto's chest rumble in laughter. Sasuke tried to relax but it was really hard to do when you were being held up by a complete idiot.

"Sasuke, I'm sure you've taken some sort of science before, right?"

"Yes," Sasuke snorted indignantly.

"Then you're aware that if you increase your surface area, you won't float down to the bottom of the pool?" Naruto said while his tone eased into a pompous tenor.

Without thinking about the validity of his instructor's last statement, all the black-haired boy wanted to do was injure the idiot holding him up, but he'd suddenly noticed that Naruto had taken a step away from him and the warm pressure of the man's fingertips on his back was lessening.

With a second's hesitation, the Uchiha splayed his arms and legs until he was spread-eagle on the water's surface. Seconds had past and Naruto was down to just three fingers; Sasuke wasn't drowning…yet.

"You're doing pretty well, Sasuke," Naruto stated, flashing him an encouraging grin from his position above him.

"Yeah, shut up."

After what seemed like no time at all, Naruto was down to one finger while Sasuke was nearly starting to sweat from anxiety.

"Okay, when I take my finger away, I want you to lift your stomach up slightly and if you start panicking just shout or something," Uzumaki said, flicking Sasuke's side to see if he was listening.

"Right," Sasuke confirmed, breathing in deeply through his nostrils.

The air in the room felt heavy as Naruto took away his finger. It was peculiar how much that finger made a difference in his equilibrium. He could feel gravity beckoning, pulling the center of his body downward.

"Lift your stomach, Sasuke!" Naruto demanded distantly.

The Uchiha's sanity broke through his hazed mind and grappled to comprehend Naruto's instruction. He arched his back and broke his face through the water to inhale fresh air again.

"Excellent! That's really good. I'm impressed."

Sasuke battled to keep his back arched while cursing the burning sensation he was feeling on the bridge of his nose. If getting mollycoddled by real authoritative figures wasn't bad enough, having someone almost his age do it to him was just torture.

"Alright, while you're in that position, I want you to try kicking your legs and moving your arms in this motion…" Naruto said, while gesturing the appropriate movement for backstroke.

The black-haired boy couldn't help but thinking that this was a giant leap from what he'd just learned but he attempted doing the motion anyway. Arms flailing back and feet kicking desperately, Sasuke had his first encounter with the backstroke.

"Am…am I moving?" Sasuke queried, his voice strained.

"No."

"Are you serious?" Sasuke cried out, nearly toppling over onto his stomach.

"Sasuke, use your brain. When fish swim, they want to keep as streamlined as possible, right?"

The Uchiha stopped thrashing and went back into floating position. Of course he was right. He had to think of every stroke logically, using every ounce of his knowledge to execute each stroke to perfection. Newton's third law…action-reaction…he needed to propel himself by utilizing the water so that it pushed him to the fullest extent. So, yes, he needed to stay streamlined for speed, and he needed to splash as little as possible…if by increasing his surface area he'd stayed afloat, doing the opposite would make it easier to go.

The explosion of his epiphany filtered through each segment of his mind.

With his legs slightly bent at the knee and pointed at the toe, Sasuke recalled the example of the stroke that Naruto had given him moments before. Naruto's hands were somewhat enclosed; there would've been little space for the water to escape through if he'd done it in the water.

With Olympian dignity, the Uchiha set forth on his mission: hands cupped and legs kicking only at the foot, he suppressed a frightened gasp as he felt himself moving at an incredible speed deeper.

"Hey, you got it Sasuke!" Naruto barked encouragingly from somewhere in the shallower end.

Yes, he knew he had gotten it. But how the hell did he stop?

"Okay, now put your feet down on the floor."

"You idiot, there is no floor!" Sasuke hissed, fear gripping his heart finally as he floated somewhere in the ten-foot region.

"Hey, Sasuke, don't panic, I'm coming over, just wait…"

The black-haired boy could feel his muscles tiring out from keeping the position he was holding. He'd long ago abandoned the stroke and was focused on just floating on his back so that he didn't end up drowning.

"Oh, shit."

Sasuke hadn't realized that he had closed his eyes, but opened them to peer to the left in the direction Naruto was wading over.

The Uchiha felt anger welling up within him when he saw Naruto's eyes shining from unshed tears. His entire torso was doubled over with withheld laughter, and he had one finger loosely pointing to the lower-half of Sasuke's body.

The dark-haired boy felt his eyebrows furrow in confusion, while he strained his neck to shift his gaze from Naruto to his own legs.

What Sasuke didn't expect to find was his swim trunks floating a good meter away from his spread legs.

"Get my shorts!" the Uchiha almost yelped, his balance being thrown off by the discovery of his new clothing situation.

"Nice dick there, man," Naruto said as he laughed openly, ruffling up his hair as he laughed into his hand.

"Shut up its cold and…"

His entire body was too tired to hold him up anymore. He could feel each of his muscles protesting the position he was in. With a placid splash, he slowly submerged in the water, hands flying up fighting desperately to stay afloat.

"Naru—"

The last thing that he registered before he passed out was that each second passed in the water seemed like an hour. The edges of his vision seemed to be slowly darkening and his lungs felt as if they were going to explode.


	4. Chapter 4

"…away for one second and he was gone. Tenten, I swear!"

Sasuke felt like shit. If he used another word to describe the feeling, it would be greater than or equal to shit. Half-formed thoughts thumped through his mind, while his head pounded in all the wrong places. His eyes seemed too heavy to open.

Conversation echoed off the walls above him. Two voices, one loud and one not-as-loud, argued over something. Sasuke's position lay between them, defenseless to the occasional spray of spit.

"Why didn't he have swimming shorts on when I came here?" The not-as-loud voice tried to say this quieter than a booming shout.

Sasuke felt crappy, yes. The fragments of conversation he caught made him want to scamper into a deep and desolate hole, like a pubescent whose parents had just caught masturbating. The sensation surging through his nerves was akin to something slightly less than depression but more than just humiliation.

"The shorts, they…uh…floated off while he was learning how to backstroke. Get off my back, Tenten. I can deal with this. I'm a grown-ass man," the louder one retorted.

"Okay, fine. I'm giving you three minutes to get him conscious. Be out of here before I bring in my student. Three _fucking_ minutes, Uzumaki."

"Yeah, yeah," the other voice mumbled.

A few seconds of silence later, hurried footsteps retreated from Sasuke's body and the distinct sound of a door slammed resonated off the pool walls.

The Uchiha attempted to lift his arm, but to no avail. The strength had been sucked out of him by some kind of swimming ogre. He could feel said swimming ogre's warm fleshy appendages wrapping around his body, lifting him to be taken to the sacrificial altar of the gargantuan Swimming-Pool Ogre King.

His eyes still refused to open; they weighed down as if they'd been open for years. Sasuke decided to make best of the situation. He leaned into the ogre for a few moments before the begrudging thought that it was awfully well-built began to irk him. Then again, as a swimming-pool monster, he'd probably done a lot of swimming to catch his victims.

The stench wasn't so bad either. He'd expected monsters to have the sort of tangy, foul smell of urine that public bathrooms tended to carry after the cleaner had been on leave for a few days. But this smell wasn't that. To better place the scent, Sasuke strained his neck and placed his nose on the hard surface of skin so that he could get a whiff of the troll; instead of urine, he smelt chlorine and some kind of spicy cologne.

The ogre didn't lumber when he walked. He took long confident strides, almost graceful in their manner. After some thought, the Uchiha poked his tongue out and tasted what he imagined to be the surface of the monster's large expanse of green flesh, only to be encountered with something small and nub-like. In the few seconds that the salty flavor of sweat settled on his tongue, he could hear a distinct gasp from above him as the appendages supporting him disappeared.

His back, suddenly colliding with cold tile, arched upward in pain. His head cleared and biting reality washed over him like a tidal wave embedded with tiger sharks. While opening his eyes and blinking away the blur; the black-haired boy let out an indignant groan.

"Oh, shit, Sasuke. I'm so sorry. It's just that you were sniffing me and then suddenly you licked my…and…Oh, man. I'm so sorry."

"Shut up."

With the use of his arms miraculously restored, he held a hand up to the small of his back and pressed gingerly. Finding no vital damage, he planted both hands on the floor and lifted his upper body. Within his panoramic view, he could see the doors leading to the locker room and to the left, at the end of the hall, was the entryway to the reception area.

Naruto, on his haunches, crouched staring at him; his eyebrows furrowed. Watchful, worried-looking eyes searched the Uchiha's face. If Sasuke squinted a bit, he could make out the small scars lining his cheeks.

"Why do you have those scars?" Sasuke muttered, not really asking.

"Huh?" Naruto replied not-so eloquently, bowing his head.

After some silence, the blond-haired boy coughed dryly and stood up.

"Are you okay going home by yourself?" asked Naruto awkwardly, his hand jutting out to help.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I know it's surprising after almost drowning and then being dropped on a tiled floor, idiot."

Sasuke swatted away Naruto's hand before pushing himself up. After unsteadily getting his footing back, he squared his shoulders and limped to the locker room to change.

* * *

"_See you tomorrow, Sasuke. I'm still sorry about the…" _

Sasuke slammed his car door shut and turning the stereo up, drowning out the rest of the memory. He'd told himself he wasn't going to smoke in the car, but popped open the cubby to pull out a cigarette anyway. He hadn't gotten any sleep since that night.

Shikamaru had phoned him at six to tell him he wasn't going to work. At that point, Sasuke had given up on sleeping and decided to get ready.

He drove with one hand around the wheel, flicking open his lighter with the other; the sweet croons of Robert Plant filling the expanse of his car. With his lit cigarette positioned precariously between his middle and forefinger, he jabbed the button to open the driver's window and blew out a stream of smoke.

How many days had it been now since the incident? Five…twelve? Yeah, he'd still been going for the lessons. It'd been executed with little to no talking, with his prodigal mind, he'd managed to almost perfect freestyle, breaststroke and, thankfully, treading. He'd purposefully avoided Naruto's gaze every time they were forced to speak.

While turning into the Uchiha Firm employee parking-lot, he threw his cigarette stub out. An odd sense of loneliness blanketed him as he parked. Shikamaru never walked with him to the building, but for some reason he missed the lazy man's presence.

Upon entrance to the modern-looking building, the cool-air of the air-conditioner hit the bared skin on his neck. The receptionist, with chewing gum visibly pocketed behind her molars, gave him a glittering smile as he walked passed her. Sasuke, too distracted by the amount of skin visible on her from the neck down, didn't return the gesture. Her dress looked like the v-neck had once been at a fairly normal state but had been modified to an almost indecent position. This, in effect, left the voyeur with a view of semi-flawless skin and the curvaceous hint of bosom.

In his defense, he was still a straight man which no amount of homoerotic dreams was ever going to change. Grateful that no one else had accompanied him into the elevator, he reflected on how much he could get done in the five days he had left.

Five days? He didn't have five days. Today, being a Wednesday meant that he had Thursday and Friday. Naruto had told him that he would be taking off Christmas Eve, Christmas and Boxing Day…, he hadn't listened because he was too busy trying to act indifferent.

That meant he only had tonight and tomorrow night.

The Uchiha was suddenly grateful that Konoha, being in the self-dubbed Land of Fire, didn't really experience a true winter. He would've probably had to take more time to train himself to swim in the freezing cold or something.

As he stepped onto the sixteenth floor, he was met with hellos and good mornings from the uncharacteristically cheerful staff.

An envelope, shoved unceremoniously into his hand, sliced into the skin between his thumb and index finger. Sasuke raised a fist upward to punch the snot out of the culprit but with a quick glance aloft, he met with Neji's smirking face.

"Merry Christmas, Uchiha. Here's your bonus," Neji said as he modified his features into a fake smile for all the staff bustling past them. His face, strained from the effort, looked so tight that Sasuke let out a quiet chuckle.

"Thanks."

"You look like shit," Hyuuga remarked, leaning back slightly to scrutinize the Uchiha's appearance.

"Once again, thanks."

"I need to talk to you about a few precedents I found regarding Johnson's case. Go to my office and I'll meet you there in a few minutes," Neji said, the air around him stifled with authority. When he stood at his full height of six foot, three inches and placed his hands in his pants pockets, he looked the part.

"Yeah, whatever," replied Sasuke, pushing past him

After passing the few desks that separated the elevator and Neji's office, he opened the glass door and settled himself on the leather couch.

The office, huge and furnished by a professional interior designer, seemed like it had been positioned specifically to suit the extravagant needs of Neji Hyuuga.

A huge window, overlooking the entire city, made up the expanse of the room. The desk, a chestnut woodwork of art, stood in front of it. It was completed with the latest touch-screen computer, case pages and folders organized methodically in front of it. The office chair almost looked comfortable enough to doze off in.

Sasuke leaned back into the cushions of the couch, breathing in the lavender scent of the room. He didn't know anyone else that put on lavender…cologne? Perfume…? But the sweet scent seemed to make his eyes weighty and slowed his breathing down. The Hyuuga wouldn't be back for a few minutes, right? He'd just rest his eyes.

The Uchiha blinked away sleep. Tiredness still slowed him down and the darkness of the car wasn't helping.

* * *

Car…?

"Awake?"

"What the hell?" Sasuke jolted up, only to be met with a pale hand pushing his head back down again.

"You fell asleep in my office, and I was nice enough to give you a ride home."

"Hyuuga…my car. It's at the firm. I put everything I've saved into buying that piece of shit," Sasuke grunted, desperation almost leaking into his voice.

"Relax, Uchiha. I had one of the lackeys take your keys and drop it off at your apartment. One of the ones that take a bus home, anyway…I think," Neji said, smoothly slouching back into the seat.

Sasuke didn't relax completely, but took a moment to absorb his surroundings.

They'd just left the office because they were still pretty far away from his apartment. A muffled 'Where to, boss?' from the front confirmed this.

"Neji, what time is it?"

"About 12am. Why?"

Damn. He was going to be late. Out of all the things that could've happened to him, it had to be that he was late for _swimming lessons_ while being in a car with Neji _'effing_ Hyuuga. Perfect.

"Can…" Sasuke hesitated, wondering how he should put it, "Can you drop me off at the corner of Fifth and Sixth?"

"Why?"

"I just realized I had something to do," Sasuke stated indifferently, diverting his eyes.

"A date…?"

"Why does it matter?" Sasuke questioned, genuinely interested as he observed the creases forming as Neji knitted his eyebrows together.

"Who the hell would want to date you?" Neji asked this while looking perfectly and delicately perplexed.

Sasuke briefly wondered if karma had finally gotten back at him for being so cruel to Sakura during their relationship.

"We're here, numbskull. Get out," Neji chided, while sipping what looked like a White Russian.

"Okay. Thanks. Bye," the Uchiha slammed the door shut before Neji could reply, and ran toward the lit building.

"Sasuke, these are the only swimsuits we have. Either wear one or go naked."

The black-haired boy silently cast every black-magic curse that existed in the history of the world on Neji Hyuuga.

Why did his boss have to have a sudden stroke of kindness?

Naruto stood, holding two pieces of, what looked like, loin-cloths in front of his face. He had the nerve to actually call them "Speedos". They looked more like those bikini bottoms teenage girls usually wore to show off their newly-formed cellulite.

* * *

"Sasuke, you're pissing me off. Can you just choose?"

"God, god, god, god…" Sasuke chanted internally, but he squared his shoulders, and set his jaw and said:

"The black one."

He felt the cloth hit his face before he was left in the locker room alone. He didn't even know why the hell he was acting like a little girl about this. They were both guys, right? Did it even matter what he was wearing? Had he even cared in his _lifetime _what other people seriously thought about him?

Sasuke groaned, unbuttoning his shirt. It was all Naruto's fault. No doubt. The stupid dreams. The stupid nipple licking. Why was this happening to him of all people? Had he not experienced enough in his life?

Naruto didn't even bother to hide his amusement at Sasuke's attire. His face donned a full-toothed grin and his eyes squinted to look like blue marbles hidden beneath layers of eyelid.

The Uchiha reflexively crossed his arms over his chest and stared at a tile above Naruto's shoulder, canines digging into the inner skin of his lips behind his closed mouth.

"So," Naruto began, clapping his hands together and rubbing them roughly, "You've learned a lot in the few days…almost freakishly so."

Sasuke didn't shift his gaze as he waited for Naruto to continue.

"Since I know you're going to need a bit more practice to increase your speed and technique, I'm willing to invite you over to my apartment building's pool to practice tomorrow."

The Uchiha, slightly stunned, cringed as a wave of paranoia stung the back of his mind. Maybe he'd given Naruto the wrong idea when he'd accidentally licked him. Maybe Naruto was some kind of pervert luring him into his apartment. People were never this nice unless they wanted something, right?

"Don't you want to spend Christmas Eve with your family?" Sasuke asked bluntly, his gaze shifting sharply.

Naruto grimaced minutely, but his mouth lifted into its usual full-smile as he said, "No, not really. It's okay. Besides, it'll give us some time for some brotherly bonding."

The Uchiha observed the blonde-haired boy's eyebrows rise in a sort of challenge. The idiot was challenging him to come over?

"Are you expecting a Christmas present or something?"

"No," Naruto laughed it off but Sasuke could sense he was beginning to feel a bit awkward about the suggestion.

After a few moments of silence the black-haired boy sighed and began walking toward the pool.

"Was that a yes?"

"Yes."

Sasuke could hear the blonde-haired boy snickering behind him and suddenly felt self-conscious again. The tips of his ears seemed to heat up a bit more with each step he took toward the pool stairs.

"Wait, Sasuke. I'm guessing you're going to need to learn to dive for this thing," Naruto said, appearing over his shoulder.

"Diving, like…going into the water head first?" The Uchiha thought he did well to keep the anxiety away from his voice.

After a few moments of silence, Sasuke rounded a full one-hundred and eighty degrees to demand an answer out of the Uzumaki, but found Naruto staring pensively at his torso.

"Do you work out a lot? I've never really noticed, but you're pretty buff for a pansy."

Sasuke briefly wondered if people had any sense of shame anymore. The heat that had once congregated at his ear tips dripped down to his cheeks. He'd been forced into letting his cool and calm exterior down in front of this guy, and his counterpart was taking full advantage of it.

He stood up straighter when he realized he'd recoiled in self-consciousness. Clenching his jaw, Sasuke said, "Yes, that's how I met this guy. At the gym. Haven't we gone through this already?"

The Uzumaki took another sweeping look at him, shrugged, and began shoving Sasuke toward the deep end of the pool. The Uchiha, too stunned by his means of transportation, didn't object.

"Okay, this could get a bit dangerous if you don't do it properly…"

Sasuke could honestly say he didn't care anymore; he articulated this by unashamedly rolling his eyes.

"…That's why we're going to take it slow," the Uzumaki stated, grinning at the impatient frown marring Sasuke's face.

"I can deal with whatever you have to throw at me, so let's just do it." Sasuke took a step to the edge of the pool to show his seriousness.

The vast amount of blue he encountered as he looked down took him by surprise. Was he really expected to jump off the edge headfirst into that? His stubbornness and pride were keeping him rooted on the spot but his instincts were telling him to turn-tail.

From the corner of his eye he could see Naruto's face had fallen back its usual bemused expression.

"Sure you don't want to take it slow?" Naruto asked, his eyes almost gleaming with mirth.

Hands clenched Sasuke grit out, "Just tell me what I need to do."

"Hands above your head, elbows slightly bent, head tucked into your chest and knees slightly bent."

The black-haired boy felt ridiculous twisting himself into the bazaar position, but did so anyway without complaint. He found himself stalling, throwing the situation about in his mind. Sure, he could abandon pride and just go with Naruto's original plan of 'taking it slow'. Sasuke could be described as a lot of things, but pansy-quitter was definitely not one of them.

Without warning, he felt a warm, towering presence behind him. His pesky pre-pubescent girl side took over his brain, biting the inside of his lip painfully when he realized he could almost feel bare skin against his back.

"Ready, Uchiha?" Warm breath brushed past his ear. Sasuke could feel goosebumps rising on his skin from the ludicrously close contact.

When gentle hands materialized on his back, the black-haired boy let out an inelegant grunt. The unashamed chuckle from behind grew in volume as the hands on his back became less gentle and more insistent.

"Okay, go."

"Can I get a little space pl—"

In his descent in the water, the Uchiha could only register the sensational pain that seemed to tingle in each nerve of his abdomen. In his ascent upward, the Uchiha could only register the urge to kill Naruto by any means necessary.

"You push me in yet weren't you the one who said that this could get a little dangerous?" Sasuke spluttered out, turning up his executioner gaze by five levels.

"I was merely pointing out one danger," Naruto stated, his tone laced innocence. Sasuke nearly keeled over when he started imagining a halo above the blond man's head, "Just think of it as a little shock therapy, Sasuke."

"I'm not even going to ask what the relation between shock therapy and whatever the hell you just did," the Uchiha muttered as he pushed himself up onto the edge.

"Good boy. So _now_ are you ready to begin?"

"Yes, goddamnit."

After moving from the crouched position, to slightly squat, to fully standing, Sasuke had awoken his full potential and had begun changing into diving position in mid-jump instead of while standing. Naruto stood looking a bit put-out muttering about how it took him an entire week to learn how to dive.


	5. Chapter 5

Tranquility in the apartment complex shattered with a groaning creak. Tenants, scattered around the area, turned to look at the newcomer who ambled so noisily up one of their precious staircases. Sasuke felt the sudden obligation to shrug in apology until most shook their heads and continued their daily activities. He took the opportunity to catch his breath and to wonder why the hell Naruto chose to live all the way on the tenth-floor.

The building was shaped like a very tall motel, each floor of the apartment complex only accessible via staircases surrounding each corner. At the center was a large square enclosing with green, mowed grass. Further inside sat a large pool accessorized with chic deck chairs.

The black-haired boy noted that the pool was probably where he was going to do his speed-training. His eyes roamed over to the happy elderly people who were congregating nearby for a barbeque. He began his ascent again.

Caught again in the reverie of monotony, his thoughts darted to how stupid he'd been to volunteer to work on Christmas Eve. He admitted begrudgingly that the day had gone by quickly. Much like a blur of vomit-colored boring. Johnson's trial had finally arrived and Neji was set to attend court, leaving Sasuke alone to his own accord.

Orochimaru and Kabuto, being the responsible men they were, both decided to attend the trial, leaving Sasuke to hold down fort at the office. It seemed like none of the staff cared enough to check if Orochimaru or Kabuto were in since no one felt the need to protest that a lowly secretary was substituting the head position…or possibly because they were just glad that those two had left. Either way it turned out Orochimaru's job consisted of doing nothing because all the Uchiha did was sit on the slimy office-chair in the giant (slightly stinky) office all day.

When Sasuke finally began to look forward to the end of the workday, it struck him that he had to enter The Demon's lair later on. The Demon, none other than the notorious Uzumaki Naruto, had persuaded the swimming school's elderly red-haired receptionist to hand over Sasuke's (client-confidential) work phone-number. Uchiha Firm's own voluptuous receptionist informed him that some guy with a "sexy voice" phoned with directions to his apartment.

The Uchiha recalled a new wincing expression forming on said receptionist's face. The look screamed, "Oh, god. He's gay. I'd better back off now." The realization of her inane thought-processes had, admittedly, broken Sasuke's cool exterior to pieces, but as Sasuke was about to vehemently deny his connection with any form of homosexuality, an angry mob of staff rushing to get home for Christmas Eve burst through the elevator doors pushing him out.

So, as Sasuke neared the apartment door, S202, he didn't hold back any of his anger as he banged furiously on the wooden door, grinning inwardly as affronted passer-bys clicked their tongues at Naruto's choice of guests.

"Can you stop doing that? I'm coming…for fuck's sake." Sasuke barely heard this. It did nothing to improve his temper.

"Let me in, moron," he half-yelled through the keyhole.

The black-haired boy didn't even bother to greet, or even look up at his host, when the door eventually opened. He pushed past the bulky body, stuffed his hands in his jean pockets and absorbed his surroundings.

The apartment was spacey, carpeted, and painted a pale shade of yellow. A giant window with a view of the crazily designed town of Konoha stood directly in front of him on the far wall. A couch lay adjacent to the right wall and a medium-sized TV on a stand across from that. Pictures of flowers and unknown people decorated some free spaces, while a pathetically small Christmas tree sat at the very right corner with one present in front of it. The Uchiha could see a kitchenette to the left of him.

"Nice place," he stated, "For someone over-the-hill and retired…," he added snidely.

"One of my old teachers owns this building. He was nice enough to spare me a room, you bastard," the Uzumaki retorted.

"Yeah, whatever you say," Sasuke muttered, turning to face The Demon.

Naruto's cheeks were really flushed. This shouldn't have been the first thing that the Uchiha registered, but it was. His wet hair dripped onto a painfully orange t-shirt, of which he'd decided to team up with khaki shorts.

After a few moments of silence engulfed them, the blonde-haired boy ushered Sasuke further into the apartment.

"…So when do you want to get swimming?" the Uzumaki asked, obviously trying to get the ball rolling.

"I assume you just got out of the shower, so let's wait until a bit later," Sasuke drawled out, thinking it was more than a bit obvious.

"Okay…" the blond-haired-boy replied, shoving Sasuke slightly out of the way and approaching the small Christmas tree, "…then, let's open presents now!"

"Uh, it's not even near 12am, Naruto. And what makes you think I got you something?"

Sasuke didn't even know why he was acting like he was friends with this guy. Friends. They'd known each other for barely two weeks on a nightly basis, and now they were exchanging Christmas presents. He could've been spending this time with someone. Someone like…Shikamaru? Well, not really. But he could've been spending it with himself, at least.

So with nowhere better to go and decidedly nothing else better to do Sasuke dug out the small envelope from his black bag then mimicked Naruto in sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of the tree.

"You did get me something, you liar," Uzumaki scoffed.

"Look, do you want it or not?"

"Yes," Naruto said, eyeing the gift. Sasuke could almost hear the saying "Good things come in small packages" bouncing around in the idiot's head.

"Wait a second. If this is a retirement cum old-age home, why are there so many staircases?"

"Mr. Gai believes in keeping fit. No matter how old you are," Naruto stated, sounding much like a home-fitness infomercial, "There is an elevator for the ones that struggle to walk." The Uchiha observed as the blonde-hair boy's fingers fidgeted on the wrapped gift as he spoke.

"Right…how many people do you think actually use the stairs?" If the blond dunce had told him about the elevator earlier, his calves wouldn't be whining their agonized protest tomorrow.

"Can we just open the gifts?" Naruto questioned, impatience visibly seeping through every pore on his body.

Without answering, Sasuke shoved the small gift into the blonde-haired boy's hands and grabbed the large package. A distant memory of his mother telling him to "Unwrap gifts carefully because people wrap them with care" fore fronted his mind. However, when he saw the crumpled bits of old gift paper taped together to form the covering of the lumpy box, he discarded the thought and began clawing.

With all the wrapping gone and lying on the surrounding floor, he tore off the masking tape and opened the box carefully. He openly grimaced when encountered with a navy blue towel with matching blue swimming trunks folded neatly underneath it.

"I can't accept this," Sasuke stated, neatly shutting the box.

"Why not?" Naruto asked noticeably becoming enraged.

The Uchiha turned his head solemnly to look out the very large window, and began awkwardly explaining, "Look Naruto, when I licked your nipple…I think I gave you the wrong idea. You see, I mean…I wasn't looking for a gay relation—"

After a pregnant pause, loud raucous laughter filtered through the room…the kind of laugh that meant seeing the source rolling on the floor and beating their fists on the ground in a caveman-like manner. Perplexed, the black-haired boy turned his head to face Naruto. A tear streamed down the boy's pink cheeks, his eyes were squeezed shut and his body was rigidly curled into the fetus position.

Naruto managed to gasp out an explanation of his behavior between heaves of breath, "I got you those things—haah—so you don't expose your abnormally small penis."

Damn that dream. Damn his secretary. Damn everyone and everything. Especially Naruto.

"Err…" Sasuke muttered, his face burning. He decided to change the subject. Fast, "How did you know my size?"

"I checked it while you were passed out last week."

Decidedly ignoring the innuendo about his penis-size, Sasuke refused to speak after muttering a dry, "Thank you." After minutes of silence on Sasuke's part and snickering from Naruto's, the Uchiha coughed and nodded his head toward Naruto's own unidentified gift.

After the prompting, Uzumaki tore open the flap and unearthed the small card that lay inside.

"A gift card to Konoha's own Power Tools and General Machinery Store, Sasuke, you shouldn't have," Naruto said dryly, raising an eyebrow.

"It's a good gift. A _manly _gift," the Uchiha noted, allowing his voice to ease to a gruff tenor.

The blonde-haired boy's cheeks puffed up as if he was going to burst out laughing again, but soon sobered to a very serious expression.

"Hey, Sasuke…I was going through your file," the Uchiha twitched visibly but didn't interrupt, "…And I noticed you lived in the Hyuuga-owned apartment buildings. You don't know a Sakura Haruno, do you?"

"Hyuuga owns those buildings? Well, I might have to move, then," Sasuke said, his mind automatically blocking out the rest of the sentence.

"Uh, yeah, but Sakura, do you know her?"

The Uchiha was taken by surprise. Not only did he assume Naruto was gay this entire time, but he didn't expected him to become so serious while talking about anyone. Sakura of all people.

"How do you know Haruno?" Sasuke asked, tearing some of the gift-paper laying on the floor in agitation.

"She's been accompanying this kid, Konohamaru, in for lessons every Friday. And we got to talking and…" Sasuke nearly vomited right there and then when he saw the Uzumaki's cheeks and the roof of his nose tinge even pinker.

"She's my ex-girlfriend, actually."

"Oh…" Naruto stated dejectedly, "The bro-pact…"

"No, not the bro-pact. You can have her if you want," Sasuke said, glancing up to gage Naruto's reaction.

Sasuke nearly felt a hernia coming along when Naruto's warm weight tackled him further into the ground for a bear hug. He could feel his own shirt riling up while carpet burned into his lower back. The force pushed him further toward the sofa's legs.

The Uchiha awkwardly patted the Uzumaki's back until he could feel a nose rub into the crook of his neck. Then, he proceeded to punch until the blonde-haired boy got the idea and sprang up.

"This is so awesome. I can't wait to tell Kiba."

Sasuke began choking on his spit violently. So violently that Naruto ran to the kitchen to get him a glass of water. Eventually, he was able to gasp out, "Y-you know a Kiba?"

"Yeah, we've been best buds since grade school."

It occurred to Sasuke that Naruto must've learned "the bro-pact" from the very same source. He'd mentally decided not to tell the Uzumaki that he was going to be competing against his friend and continued to sip his water quietly.

"Uh, so…do you want to do that training?"

The training had consisted of Sasuke lapping up and down the pool until his chest began to constrict. His body had almost completely numbed after Naruto had shown him how to front flip and push off the wall to switch strokes faster.

After all this, Naruto suggested they take a ten minute break. The Uchiha, mentally and physically exhausted, flopped down on the sprinkled grass. The blonde-haired boy then decided to run inside to get them some bottles of water, which had given Sasuke some time to recuperate. Night had already painted the complex a darker shade, allowing the black-haired boy to bathe in obscurity.

A sudden shift next to him and an overbearing presence indicated that the Uzumaki had decided to join him. The acidic smell of chlorine lingering at the back of his nose and the water collected in his ear were the only things keeping him awake.

"So, what was it like dating Sakura?" Naruto's voice broke through the peacefulness like whip crack.

Annoyed, the black-haired boy grumbled out, "Do we have to talk about Haruno?" or anything for that matter, he added to himself.

Naruto decided to prop his elbow on the ground and rest his head on his hand so that he was facing Sasuke's side.

"How did you guys start going out?"

Briefly wondering how it suddenly became gossip-hour, the Uchiha tried to recall how he began going out with Haruno. Bored of staying in his apartment all day, and in an effort to become a more sociable person, Sasuke had just accepted a few dumb offers to go to the movies with the girl. When she suddenly started calling him her boyfriend, he didn't really have the energy to refuse.

"I can't remember," he replied.

"If I can beat you in a race, you're going to give me her number," Naruto challenged, his eyebrows furrowed.

"What?"

"You heard me," Uzumaki said.

The black-haired boy's heart thumped madly at the prospect of a race. This would be the true test of the skills that he'd accumulated. Could he really handle competing against someone who'd been swimming for his entire life? Then again, this race would reveal if he were ready to face Kiba or not.

"Fine, let's do it," Sasuke responded, the chill air numbing the anxiety flooding through his body.

The walk back to the pool didn't do much to prep the Uchiha, but backing down meant looking like a wuss. Backing down meant that Naruto was definitely better than him. No, he was going to do this alright.

"We dive into the deep-end, swim to the end and back. First one to the start wins," the blonde-haired boy said, stretching his long arms upward as he did.

When they were both situated on either side of the pool edge, both poised in ready-diving position, Naruto barked out, "Shout out when we should start."

"Ready…" Sasuke found himself saying. His brain was acting on its own again.

"…Set," the Uchiha near whispered, curling his toes around the pool-edge before shouting, "Go!"

As he hit the freezing water, all he'd learned had become instinct and he knew he had to move his arms and legs as fast as he could if he wanted to win.

The dive had already taken him halfway across the pool. The bullet-like propulsion next to him indicated that he and Naruto were neck-to-neck. The Uzumaki's powerful, skilled, stream-lined movements left Sasuke fighting to keep up as they'd reached the shallow end. Without hesitation, he front-flipped and pushed powerfully off the wall, making up some of the space he'd lost to the Uzumaki's speed.

The black-haired boy was pushing himself far beyond his ability. His limbs were heavy, but that wasn't enough to stop him, or even slow him down. Water hurled itself into his nostrils; he could barely keep his eyes open from the burning of the chlorine. When he'd finally reached the end, his entire body was stiffer than it'd had ever been after a full-body workout. The Uchiha draped himself on the side of the pool, coughing but too exhausted to drag himself out.

Naruto seemed to be in the same situation as he was, only outside of the pool. It was obvious that the Uchiha had lost, though. The Uzumaki had speed and experience behind him. Sasuke had managed to keep up only with pure willpower and strength.

"That was impressive," Naruto finally panted out, offering the black-haired boy a hand out of the pool.

"I don't need your pity," Sasuke stated, but took the offered hand anyway and heaved himself out.

"I'm serious. I really battled to stay in front for a while."

The Uchiha stayed silent, still smarting from his loss. He hated losing. He'd probably go as far as to say that the joy of winning didn't affect him as much as losing to someone.

"I'm going inside, changing and then leaving. I'll leave the number on your table."

"No, wait for me," Naruto demanded, grabbing both their towels and throwing one to Sasuke.

"Fine."

There were many things that Sasuke didn't expect to walk into on an average stroll toward his apartment door. Strange woodland animals, robots, zombies were all out of the ordinary and were not to be expected. Somewhere near the top of that list, fell Sakura and Naruto eating each other's faces out. Not only were they making out right next to his door, they were making-out to an illicit soundtrack provided by the raunchy noises escaping their mouths.

"Is there a reason why you guys are nearly fornicating outside my apartment?" Sasuke drawled, while pushing the key into the lock.

The Uzumaki pulled away first, but only after great effort. His lips were tinged a darker shade of red and his eyes were slightly out of focus. With a toothy grin he said, "We just came back from dinner, and I wanted to see your apartment…and one thing led to another…and—"

"Okay, I get it."

Sasuke smirked at the blue-eyed boy's decency to look away ashamed. Sakura, however, stood hands perched on her hips and looking upward in boredom.

"So, the competition got postponed until tomorrow?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah, because of the rain, how did you know?" Sasuke replied jiggling at the lock until it finally gave.

"Kakashi," Naruto said simply.

The black-haired boy paused in his process of opening the apartment door, but chose not to ask and ambled on.

"I should go, sweetheart," she stated suddenly, pushing her medium-sized breasts against Naruto's chest.

Her tone clearly said, 'It's okay if you want to come with,' but Naruto was too busy trying to get a peek inside the Uchiha's apartment to catch it. He replied with a distracted, "Okay, I'll see you tomorrow or something, Sakura."

He did, however, look back in earnest, saying with powerful honesty, "I love you."

The Haruno looked slightly repulsed but bid Naruto a pleasant goodnight before she turned to walk away.

Sasuke didn't know why he bothered to turn back to witness all the sentimental bullshit. Naruto looked a bit dejected, but quickly recovered when he saw Sasuke pulling off his black jersey.

"Wow, that thing looks so ragged!" Uzumaki yelled, shutting the door behind him.

"Wow. You're right," Sasuke said caustically, throwing the garment in the blonde-boy's face.

The Uchiha's Spartan-style apartment was almost laughable in its polarity to Naruto's. The most interesting aspects were its royal blue walls and his bulletin board. Right next to the front door was his small kitchen, completed with a single light blue table. His bed lay made in the far corner and across from it was his desk.

"This place is tiny," said Naruto as he strode in, dropped Sasuke's sweater on the bed and started observing every nook and cranny.

"You've really got a knack for stating the obvious, Uzumaki," Sasuke retorted, putting water in the kettle.

"Are all the rooms like this? I can't see Sakura living in a place this small."

"No. I asked for the smallest room."

Naruto probably sensed that he didn't want to talk about it anymore because he silenced and plopped himself on the bed.

Without bothering to ask how the Uzumaki wanted it, Sasuke handed him a cup of tea and then settled on his sofa.

"Where exactly is the competition tomorrow? I want to watch," questioned Naruto, using the wall next to the bed as a backrest.

The Uchiha wasn't entirely sure that he wanted the blonde there, but after realizing that he probably wouldn't give up until Sasuke revealed the location, he replied with "The Konoha Fitness Center, I'm guessing you already know where it is."

"Oh yeah…"

"How was your date with Sakura, then? I'm surprised anything was open on Christmas day," the black-haired boy decided to ask after a particularly long silence.

"Well, I've been living here all my life. It took a while, but I've made some connections," Naruto replied, rubbing his nose with his thumb smugly, "But anyway, it was really good, man. First we went to the park until it started raining, and she even let me hold her hand for a little while. And then we went to the cinema. I yawned and draped my arm around her shoulders, like they do in those movies. Then we ran to the arcade…"

Sasuke was beginning to wonder why he inquired as Naruto, between gulps of tea, began describing each and every detail about his rendezvous with Haruno. Six minutes of listening to Naruto crooning on how sweet Sakura's hair smelled led to vindictiveness bubbling up from somewhere deep in the Uchiha's being.

"You know," he began, silently wondering how to phrase his thoughtful spite. He could see he'd gotten Naruto's attention by the way his eyebrows quirked so he continued, "You know she's only going out with you to get back at me."

As the information sunk in, the Uchiha noted the way the blonde's shaped facial features delicately morphed to unadulterated rage.

"What are you talking about? I know for a fact she likes me!" the blonde retorted defensively, dropping the empty cup and scuttling to the edge of the bed closer to Sasuke's couch.

"How do you know?" the black haired boy challenged, his tone drenched with derisiveness.

"Have you not been listening to me for the past ten minutes?!" Naruto questioned furiously.

"I've been listening to you telling me why you like her, not the other way around." Sasuke said this triumphantly, as if he'd won some undeclared battle between them.

Without warning two hands slammed and planted into the wall behind him, and he was face to face with Naruto's electric-blue gaze attempting to disarm him. Through clenched teeth he said, "Take-it-back."

If all the occurrences that had happened up until this moment didn't point toward the fact that the Uchiha wasn't someone who gave up easily, then the obvious was no longer noticeable.

"No," he stated simply, gripping one of Uzumaki's wrists and forcing it down so he could stand up, "If I asked her to start going out with me again right now, she'd probably take me back in a heartbeat."

"Y-y…bast...tha's…no…" So choked with rage that he was unable to form words, Naruto sent his nails digging into his palm. Although he wasn't going to show it, Sasuke was getting a bit fearful that Uzumaki's reaction might bring destruction and chose to stay silent. He didn't want his apartment destroyed so soon after he'd set it up. Why was he acting like this toward the Uzumaki anyway? Was he becoming jealous that Sakura was a soft spot for the blonde?

Before he knew it, his mouth started working again, "In fact, after you leave, I'll probably invite her over to my apartment and we can get to it like bunnies. She always was a good fu—"

A primordial cry of rage sounded before the black-haired boy's back hit carpet, blows suddenly rained all over Sasuke's body. When the punches stopped, he realized his knees were being pushed down painfully by Naruto's shins and the Uzumaki was sitting right above his pelvis so that his lower back was being pressed painfully into the floor.

"Take it back, right now," Naruto repeated himself.

"What are we…ten?" Sasuke asked, trying to shove the blonde off him.

Predictably, Naruto caught his arms and lost his balance temporarily. The brunette took the opportunity to buck him off and reverse their positions. The Uchiha made sure to secure the blonde-haired boy's arms on the carpet above his head. The only difference was Sasuke had somehow settled on the Uzumaki's crotch, and he was pretty sure he was the only one who noticed or cared about their predicament.

Somehow his thought processes took a frightening turn. Sasuke had gotten himself into a position where almost all homoerotica seemed to stem from. The kind where a testosterone induced fight leads to an unmistakable sexual position. The brunette was surprised, however, when the blonde went limp under him and his face took on a disheartened expression.

"You're probably right, you know. She was really angry on the phone when I called her, asking how I got her number and everything…said that I had no right just making unannounced calls to her phone. That was until I mentioned your name," Naruto admitted, "…then she got all interested," he added quietly.

Why do the Uchiha's plans for revenge always seem to go wrong somehow? Instead of feeling victorious he just felt like a jerk even though he was the one that mostly got beat up. Letting go of the Uzumaki's hands and sitting back, he waited agitatedly for the blonde to speak again. After a while the blonde used his hands to prop up his upper body. Looking authentically apologetic he said, "Sorry, man. I didn't mean to beat on you like that."

How he could just apologize? After the Uchiha had intentionally made the blonde doubt Sakura's feelings for him and then offered the notion that he was going to invite her over for a heartless fuck later? Sasuke had never met anyone so irritatingly genuine in his entire life. It was borderline naïve and admirable. It was infuriating and fascinating at the same time.

The Uchiha's last thoughts were unquestionably 'to hell with it' as he attempted to smash his own lips against Naruto's. The only problem was the Uzumaki had unwittingly glanced at his fallen tea cup at the very same moment so all Sasuke encountered was hard cheek.

Every particle in the air seemed to freeze at that moment. Naruto had gone terse underneath the Uchiha and Sasuke's fingers gripped hard into the carpet. His lips were against Naruto's cheek, and there was no way of making excuses as to what his intention had been. He could see no way out of it. If he moved off the Uzumaki now, he'd probably get punched again and left to bleed to death.

Deciding the situation would and could only get worse if he didn't do something, Sasuke breathed hard through his nose and languidly licked hard along Naruto's cheek until he was met with neck.

The black-haired boy heard a vague "Sas—?" before he began planting light kisses and sucking the curve adjoining the blonde's head and shoulder. He realized that he was decorating the patch of skin with light pink colored dots, but his mind was too dazed and panicked to care. Naruto had almost completely stilled under him. The Uchiha, needing something to do with his hands, rubbed one of Naruto's shoulder blades. A small moan audibly escaped the blonde when Sasuke kneaded a particularly stubborn knot.

The brunette's heart slammed hard against his chest with the small noise. He didn't know if it was from fear or excitement, or a mixture of both. There was also a nagging voice at the back of his head telling him that he had no idea what he was doing or why he was doing it, but all of his mind's wonderings froze when tentative fingertips touched lightly underneath his t-shirt on his lower back.

The Uchiha could see from the corner of his eye that the blonde was straining to look at him. Blue eyes widened each time the Uchiha's tongue swiped at a new spot. The bulge in his pants sent up a sudden twinge of pleasure through the rest of his body. What the heck was he getting himself into? He buried his face into Naruto's shoulder purely out of embarrassment when he changed his position so that he was straddling one of the Uzumaki's thighs.

Sasuke needed to control himself. He wasn't entirely sure when he'd gotten to the point where he'd lost control. But he really wasn't about to start dry humping himself on Naruto until he reached release, because he wasn't certain his actions were consensual.

Then again, Naruto was a grown man. If they were in the reversed situation, he would've thrown the Uzumaki off and out of his apartment already. At least that's what he thought he'd do. When the heck had he turned bi-curious, anyway?

As if on cue, Naruto stuttered a weak, "W-wait, Sasuke," and grabbed his sides with both hands forcefully.

The brunette really didn't want to talk right then, especially since he couldn't really explain himself plus it sucked that Naruto's hands felt tingly grabbing him. At a last attempt at stopping any words from coming out of Uzumaki's mouth, the Uchiha pushed his lips against the blonde's, earning what sounded like a contradictory high-pitched grunt. The first thing he could smell was cherry lip-gloss. A lot of it. How could he have forgotten that Naruto had been making out with Sakura just minutes before?

Abruptly snapping from his state, Sasuke tumbled off Naruto and scampered to his feet.

Looking down at the Uzumaki, Sasuke noted that his hair was standing off to one side; his cheeks were as red as he'd ever seen them and his eyes were frantically scanning the Uchiha with confusion.

"Did you just try to have sex with me?" Naruto asked bluntly, jumping up to standing position and pointing at the Uchiha horrified.

"Get out," Sasuke said, pushing the blonde to his door.

"Wait, stop shoving me," the Uzumaki demanded, trying to plant his feet.

Maybe Sasuke was wrong about Naruto being a fucking grown man. Who the hell asks a question like that? Slightly hurt, the Uchiha strode past Naruto to open the door, "Just go."

"…Do you like me or something?" Naruto inquired, his question equally as frank as the last.

"Naruto, just go," Sasuke demanded, feeling emotionally drained.

"Good luck with the competition tomorrow," offered the Uzumaki bleakly as he walked out the door.

Without waiting for Naruto to step off his doormat, the black-haired boy shut his apartment door. Shuffling across the floor, he dropped like a sandbag on the bed. What the hell had he been thinking moments before? On the plus-side, he was sure that the Uzumaki wouldn't show up for the competition. But then again, he'd completely chopped-apart, massacred, and generally destroyed his image, reputation or any other thing that represented him. How did he know that Naruto wouldn't blabber about his actions to Sakura or even worse Kiba? Ego in shreds and exhausted, Sasuke threw his pillow on the floor – choosing to sleep facedown on his mattress.


	6. Chapter 6

Sleep had washed away reality.

Mental and physical exhaustion reaped with the sweet fruit of momentary amnesia.

Unfortunately, Sasuke's alarm clock wasn't as forgetful.

When he did finally wrench his eyes open, it seemed like a physical impossibility to rise without puking.

So he lay listening to the incessant beeping-each bleep shooting through his ear and destroying any neuron which dared stand in its path. Time weighed down on him. An hour away, his body was being ripped apart by the stares of nearly one-hundred spectators anticipating his victory or downfall. Reality had finally kicked him in the teeth.

When he did manage to amble over to the bathroom, he contemplated what drove the ever-so-clever Uchiha to be so idiotic. Sasuke had agreed to participate in "Show-You're-Buff" to save face but he probably set himself up for a bigger fall.

Kiba's gloating expression swam to the forefront of his mind as he played out the scenario of his utter and complete defeat. He'd have to change gyms. Konoha wasn't the largest city in the world. He doubted that there were many more fitness places in the area.

His problems kept mounting.

Swimming classes were over. He supposed he could easily avoid Naruto if he really wanted to…except steering clear from the Uzumaki wasn't going to erase the fact that he had practically jumped the man. Did Naruto feel violated enough to press charges? He could already see the news headline: Sasuke Uchiha, forgotten heir to the Uchiha Firm:

Gay Sex Offender.

While staring at his reflection, foamed toothbrush hanging from the corner of his mouth, he wondered if he'd have cared about any allegations made against him a few weeks ago. The absurd idea that he didn't want Naruto's disapproval sent a jolt spiraling through his nervous system.

Could it be that he only cared what Naruto thought? Shaking the suggestion loose from where it was clinging onto his skull, the black-haired boy rinsed and wiped his mouth with a nearby face towel.

For a mind-numbingly dumb second, he mused upon taking a shower. But what was he looking presentable for...A ballroom dance-off? There was no reason for him to look good so he wasn't going to try. His efficiency was only valid in necessary matters, plus he was just going to look like a mess after the whole ordeal was over anyway.

Three hesitant knocks at his door startled him. With one arm through one of his t-shirt sleeves and the other still dangling out, he walked over and wrenched it open.

"Why do I always seem to find you in a state of undress, Uchiha?"

Shikamaru stood perched with one shoulder against his doorway, staring at him with a slight searching look on his face.

Why does everyone seem to find me in a state of undress? the black-haired boy wondered.

"And you're here because…?" Sasuke asked, putting his other arm through the remaining sleeve and backing up into the kitchen to pour a bowl of cereal.

"I heard through some connections that you were going to be in the swimming competition today," Shikamaru said.

He strolled into Sasuke's apartment, visibly taking note of its pitiful size before settling on Sasuke's bed.

"Are you serious? Does this town have an underground hideout where everyone meets to discuss my life?"

Shikamaru granted him a small smile before his gaze shifted to out the window.

The strain of burden pressured Sasuke. It felt like he had been sentenced to capital punishment and Shikamaru was the last person to visit him. He had to make some profession, something to clear his mind before he took the plunge. Setting his bowl down on the counter, he tried to organize his thoughts.

"Earlier…," he began, clearing his throat before continuing, "Or rather a few days ago, you asked why I wasn't in charge of the Uchiha Firm."

The Nara didn't make any verbal response to indicate he was listening, but turned his head toward Sasuke.

"I guess I'd find it difficult to take over without confirming I'm the only one left." He left 'of my family' unsaid.

He could feel his weighty confession sinking into Shikamaru's abnormally large brain.

The Nara's eyes narrowed slightly as if he were in deep thought. Neither man seemed

emotionally capable enough to talk about the admittance, so Shikamaru just shifted his legs uncomfortably while giving a terse nod.

A few minutes of silence followed, which the Nara took as his cue to leave. As Shikamaru bid him farewell and slouched out of the door, Sasuke felt as if he'd been relieved of some his emotional load.

But that didn't mean that Shikamaru was going to turn into his personal peculiarly lazy therapist or anything.

Sighing deeply, black-haired boy stood up and stretched. There was no point in prolonging time any longer. He was going to have to man-up and do his best.

* * *

"Well, look who decided to finally show up…the fabulous Prince Snob."

Kiba stood at the entrance of the Konoha Fitness Center's grounds with a few of his friends and adoring (probably paid) girl followers. His red swim shorts were already fastened around his hips. His face seemed to be coated in a pale-white - probably from sunblock that hadn't been rubbed in properly.

Sasuke's retort was caught halfway in its process of release. He realized if he retaliated, he'd probably add some fuel to the Inuzuka's gloating tirade if he lost.

Unable to say anything in return, the Uchiha pushed past the small group of people toward the locker room. He almost got through the crowd until a large, rough hand grabbed his shoulder, "Hey, I'm talking to you, fathead."

"Is there any reason why you're touching me, Inuzuka?" Sasuke asked, not bothering to hide his anger.

"Well if someone acknowledges you, y'know," the brown-haired boy said, hooking his arm around the Uchiha's shoulders uncomfortably and tightly, "Especially someone calling you by your official title…You're supposed to have the decency to y'know…say something back," His newfound habit of saying 'y'know' and the fact that he was speaking a decibel too loud threatened to turn on Sasuke's violence mode.

"Kiba!" yelled a familiar voice about five meters behind where Sasuke and Kiba were standing in their faux man-hug, "Long time no see, bro!"

"Uzumaki, you sexy bastard! Where have you been?" shouted the brown-haired boy back happily, releasing Sasuke and swinging around to face the blond newcomer.

The Uchiha's brain was suddenly engulfed in torrent of panic. He floundered minutely, trying to find a place to escape. Taking advantage of Kiba's temporary distraction, he power-walked toward the locker rooms.

In the distance, he thought he heard, "Oi! Uchiha. I'm not done with you," but that didn't stop him from sprinting the last few feet into an empty stall.

Not bothering to catch his breath, Sasuke took out his anger by wrenching off his clothing and leap stepping into his new blue shorts. Why had Naruto showed up? His appearance had reconfirmed Sasuke's suspicion that the guy had no shame…absolutely no shame. If a person sexually harasses another person, why would the victim show up to support the harasser at a sport's event?

Leaning with one hand against the stall wall, the Uchiha realized he might've been flattering himself. After all, Naruto was Kiba's friend too. The Uzumaki could've been there solely to support the Inuzuka. Sasuke also noted the fact that most of his thinking seemed to happen inside changing room stalls.

An announcement stating that the competitors should begin to take their position behind the diving boards resonated throughout the empty bathroom. Sasuke could hear the dull buzz of a crowd just beyond the entrance.

How was everything happening this quickly? With one last tightening of his tassels, the

Uchiha spat dryly and half-jogged out of the building. Bright, near blinding sunlight invaded every inch of his peripheral vision. The dazzling scene surfaced in front of him: inflatable figures of bodybuilders dancing with the breeze; red, blue and yellow balloons surrounding the pool area in giant clumps.

In the distance, he spotted Naruto perched on top of the lifeguard tower rubbing sunscreen into his back with vigor. He had aviators sitting low on his nose with standard red lifesaver swim-shorts on. A bitter feeling settled somewhere in Sasuke's chest when he realized Naruto was there because he'd been asked to lifeguard the competition. He also berated himself for thinking the sunglasses suited the Uzumaki. Luckily, his thoughts were soon wrenched back to focusing on the competition as he reached his destination.

Two equally muscled competitors stood in front of the last and second to last diving board. Kiba stood at the third, stretching one arm over the other. Sasuke's nerves tingled as he stepped up to the board next to the Inuzuka. He could almost hear his stomach churning.

"Scared, Uchiha?"

Trust Kiba to egg him on in the most predictable, clichéd way possible.

"I think I'd be more scared if I were you - this is probably the most contact with water you've had in weeks."

The brown-haired boy frowned deeply. His lower-lip curled to the point of pouting but his eyes focused on the pool ahead as the final warning was announced.

Two other swimmers stood on Sasuke's left, one doing some boxing punches and footwork to pump himself up and the other looking as nauseous as Sasuke felt.

"Alright, competitors," sounded a distant megaphone, "Step up to the diving boards. No one dives before the gun is shot. If you jump, it's instant disqualification."

The swimmers all exchanged glances, sizing each other up. No one looked overly confident. Even Kiba looked uneasy, as he stood perched on his diving board, arms hanging loose and ready for the dive.

"On your marks…get set…GO!" said the announcer followed by the bang of the gun.

Sasuke took a giant leap forward and dove into the water. His form hadn't been perfect; he could still feel the sting on his thighs. Kiba and the rest of the competitors had taken an early lead as Sasuke stroked freestyle. He didn't have the opportunity to feel discouraged as the wall was fast approaching.

With a front-roll, the Uchiha pushed off the pool wall, breathing out bubbles through his nose. He surfaced on his back and began the backstroke. Some of the competitors had fallen behind during the last few feet of the freestyle run.

"COME ON, SASUKE -YOU PASTY BASTARD! YOU GOT THIS!" came the bellowing yell from the lifeguard stand, "I DIDN'T SPEND ALL THOSE DAYS WITH YOUR PALE ASS JUST FOR YOU TO FAIL NOW."

Sasuke's backstroke became more erratic when he realized Naruto was cheering for him.

Could it even be considered cheering? It was like a mixture of cheer and insults hurled at him from the lifeguard stand. The Uchiha felt renewed as his fingertips touched the edge of the other side of the pool and he back flipped into breaststroke.

The fact that the Uzumaki hadn't branded him as a sex-offender was a lot more gratifying than he thought it would be. Sure, Naruto could just be exasperated that Sasuke was just doing mediocre after all their hard work, but the black-haired boy tried not to think of the situation that way. A view of Kiba's newly wrinkled feet at least two feet in front of him jolted Sasuke back into the present.

With another push of energy, Sasuke pushed forward and managed to pass Kiba. He came up for a breath of air before triggering his inner-frog. He had one more length after breaststroke and then victory was his. It didn't actually matter if he beat the other competitors, if he beat Kiba that would be enough.

Three quarters of the way through the length, a sudden paralyzing force knocked him sideways into the other competitor's lane. Torrents of water gushed up his nose. He surfaced, slightly dazed and hacking before he was pushed back into his lane by the other competitor. He could see Kiba swimming furiously and passing him at an alarming speed toward the other side. Unable to think of anything but winning, the Uchiha dove back into the water and rocketed through the last few feet.

By the time he'd front flipped off the wall, Kiba was just a foot in front of him. Sasuke kept getting water in his nose, so each time he came up for air was as useless as the last.

But he couldn't let Kiba win. Forgoing breathing entirely, he frantically did the butterfly stroke until his forehead bashed into the opposite wall.

He'd reached the finish line. The race was done. He was almost scared to find out what had happened. His vision spotted, Sasuke looked to the left. Kiba was staring furiously at him, forehead deeply furrowed. The Uchiha let his right fist fly up in cheer. He'd done it.

He'd beaten Kiba. He'd triumphed all and managed to win the ra—

"The competition has been canceled due to the circumstances. Thank you all for coming, anyway. Hopefully next year there will be more luck."

Sasuke's fist froze in the air. He looked back at Kiba to find that the brown-haired boy hadn't been glaring at him at all, but just past his shoulder. With a sense of dread, the Uchiha turned to his right.

It seemed like the last competitor on the left had become exhausted halfway through the competition and begun to drown. Naruto had jumped into the water, pushed Sasuke into the other lane and rescued the flailing man.

The Uchiha, being the only one not to realize what was going on, had been the sole competitor still struggling to finish the race ahead until the end. Sasuke's diaphragm felt completely deflated. All the lessons; all the training; all the lead-up had summed up to this moment.

Lifting himself out of the pool, he could feel the stinging sensation of rage pooling right behind his eyes.

"Nice job still swimming like a prick after that guy started drowning. I would have beaten you if this were a serious competition, y'know. I've seen better swimming in the kiddies' pool," came the snarky remark from the Uchiha's left.

Blinding anger infiltrated Sasuke's vision before he swung his right fist just past Kiba's jaw. He'd barely missed but he wasn't going to miss the second punch. Caught by surprise, the Inuzaka yelped stumbling back a bit before catching himself on the diving board railing.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Kiba yelled.

Sasuke didn't bother to respond as he gathered up strength. His left hand shot out with ferocious might, contacting the brown-haired boy's cheek. The Uchiha didn't have time to feel proud of himself as his back and head met with slippery tile. Kiba had dive tackled him onto the floor, and had proceeded to punch him in a way suspiciously similar to how Naruto had done the night before.

"Hey…Kiba! Get off him, c'mon," Naruto had jogged over and was laboriously wrenching Kiba off Sasuke.

"Yeah, keep your dog on a leash," Sasuke muttered loud enough for Kiba to hear him as he stood up.

The brown-haired boy looked like he was about to make another leaping dive for Sasuke but the Uchiha had already started walking away. He felt creeping humiliation settling on his skin. Not only had he been the only asshole to continue racing after the last competitor had started drowning, but he'd also allowed himself to feel good and cheer after "winning".

* * *

In a daze, the black-haired boy had somehow left the competition, drove his way back to his apartment and gotten in the bathroom. While stripping off his clothes, he noticed that his body had a new coat of bright pink that reached everywhere except where his shorts had been. Not only had the competition ended like crap, but Sasuke was now also covered from head to toe with sunburn.

He didn't want to risk showering, so he pulled his briefs back on and zombie lumbered to the bed. Not knowing what to do outside of laying spread-eagle with pain tingling in almost every spot imaginable, he opted for staring at the ceiling and wishing he'd never been born.

A few booming knocks interrupted his ceiling staring– he was suddenly incredibly glad he'd forgotten to lock the door. Sasuke managed a weak, "It's open."

Tufts of blond hair peeking out of the new door opening confirmed the Uchiha's suspicion that Naruto had come over to talk about the competition, "Hey, I wanted to see if you were alr…holy shit. You look like a beached lobster."

Once again, the black-haired boy questioned why he thought Naruto was a decent guy. The blond had edged closer to his bed and had begun gingerly prodding Sasuke's particularly red stomach, laughing.

"You know what every sunburned person loves? Being poked by a moron," Sasuke bit out sharply.

Naruto guffawed for a little while longer, but soon cocked his head to the side, "Want me to head down to the corner shop for some Aloe Vera lotion?"

The Uchiha thought about this for a while. It was going to hurt like hell to put it on, but in the long run it seemed like a good idea. Plus it would get Naruto out of his room for a little while.

After a minute of silence he said, "Okay. Go for it."

The Uzumaki disappeared behind the door again, so Sasuke turned back to the ceiling. He didn't know if it was such a good idea to have Naruto in his apartment while he was in his briefs and they still hadn't discussed the "incident".

The Uchiha found himself wildly hoping the blond-haired boy had developed some kind of memory loss problem when he'd knocked into Sasuke in the pool. In what seemed like a few minutes Naruto had returned, closing the door behind him, he entered with a rustling plastic bag – the Aloe Vera bottle weighing it down.

He settled the bottle on Sasuke's bedside table and sat down on the edge of the Uchiha's bed. Sasuke watched as various degrees of confusion flitted across Naruto's face. After a few minutes of playing with the navy blue bedcover, Naruto's thoughtful expression cleared slightly.

"Hey…don't feel too bad about the competition. I personally think you did pretty well for someone who just learned how to swim a few weeks ago," he finally said awkwardly

"You were sitting there looking perplexed for at least seven minutes and that's all you had to say?" Sasuke asked, exasperated.

"Well…yeah," Naruto replied, looking slightly taken aback, "What more did you want me to say?"

The Uchiha opened his mouth but promptly closed it again. What had he expected Naruto to say? He didn't want to talk about what had happened the night before. But at the same time, he couldn't help but wonder if it had meant anything to the Uzumaki at all.

"Do you want me to help you put on the Aloe Vera?" Naruto asked suddenly, causing Sasuke's thought process to shatter.

The Uchiha hoped that the pressure behind his eyeballs wasn't causing them to bulge out. The blond-haired boy wanted to help apply Aloe Vera on him. Sasuke could see about a billion problems with that situation.

"N-no. I think it's about time you left, actually. I'll do it myself," The Uchiha spluttered. He then tried to roll over only to be met with searing pain radiating through the right side of his body.

Sasuke had hoped that his discomfort hadn't shown on his face but Naruto wasn't fooled, evidently.

"Oh, come on. Don't be stupid. Just let me do it and then I'll go."

Sasuke wondered when Naruto had become the reasonable one since his stubbornness was refusing to allow the Uzumaki to come within ten inches of him.

The black-haired boy stupidly tried to bend his knee to get up. He could feel his conviction rattling as the feeling equivalent to a bulldog latching onto his limb penetrated his body.

"Okay. Fine. Just put it on," Sasuke spat finally.

Naruto grinned, getting up to fetch the bottle. He flipped the cap open and squeezed a generous amount on his hands. Pushing the lid back down with his thumb, the blond-haired boy put the Aloe back on the counter, then rubbed his hands together spreading the liquid.

In the time it took to do this, the Uchiha let the situation dawn on him. Was Sasuke really going to let a nearly qualified idiot touch him when his entire body was wracked with fiery pain?

"Wait, I'm not too sure about this…" Sasuke began, looking skeptically from Naruto to his white hands.

Naruto flashed him an exaggeratedly bored look before slowly lowering his hands down directly above each of the Uchiha's shoulders.

"Oh Lordy," Sasuke muttered, squeezing his eyes tight. To his surprise, the black-haired boy suddenly felt a soothing sensation enveloping his shoulders, which was in stark contrast with the rest of his body.

"See? Not so bad, right?" the Uzumaki cooed annoyingly, moving on to focus on Sasuke's right arm.

The Uchiha wasn't going to admit Naruto was right. Instead, he lay back with his eyes closed, enjoying the feeling of the cooling lotion on his skin.

The bed's weight shifted to the right, indicating that the blond-haired boy had sat down.. His hands left the Uchiha's body, returned with more lotion, and began a slow process rubbing down Sasuke's chest.

Naruto's fingers felt surprisingly gentle tracing down his sides. He could feel the liquid amassing at a point then smoothed down the remaining skin. It reached just above his pelvic bones and then back up again.

"Do you always make those noises when someone's touching you?" Naruto asked suddenly, breaking Sasuke out of his reverie.

Noises? The Uchiha's eyes flung open, "I wasn't making noises."

"Yeah, you were," Naruto insisted, looking way too amused.

"Look, if you're going to be an asshole then you can stop and go now," Sasuke muttered heatedly.

The blond just smirked, grabbing more lotion and squirting it into his hands. The Uchiha was wary of keeping his eyes closed this time around, though.

How did he manage to get into this situation anyway? The man he sexually attacked yesterday was lathering moisturizer on his body today. Sasuke refused to make any more supposed "noises" so he bit his inner cheek and watched as the Uzumaki's hands descended on him again.

It turned out keeping his eyes open was a bad idea. He watched as Naruto's slightly calloused hands slid familiarly over his left thigh down to his shin. The blond's fingertips lingered on his knee as he reached over to the tabletop for more of the Aloe. The Uzumaki moved on to the other leg, contributing just as much attention.

Sasuke made the mistake of glancing up at the blond-haired boy's face. Naruto had a look of mild concentration on his face as his hand massaged down the skin on the Uchiha's upper leg. Sasuke noticed the boy's cheeks tinge minutely pink as the hand slowly shifted its position from upper to inner thigh. Blue-eyes altered their position to look at Sasuke unsurely.

The Uchiha felt a rush of both horror and anticipation coursing through his chest. Was Naruto implying something with that look or was he going crazy? The black-haired boy didn't know whether to break eye contact or not. Something in his head was telling him not to take the situation too seriously, though. Yesterday he'd made a grave mistake

Sasuke's thoughts seem to go out the window when Naruto's thumb started making tiny circles on his skin. Soon the rest of the blond-haired boy's fingers were tracing a path way too close to Sasuke's crotch. He temporarily forgot the Uzumaki was looking at him as he unwittingly gave way to the feeling; he fought the temptation to bite his bottom lip.

The Uchiha realized with terror that his lack of clothing situation was going to become problematic if Naruto didn't stop doing whatever it was he was doing.

"Sasuke, are you in there? I came to give you this dumb jacket back….that I had to practically beg you for," came the unmistakable voice from behind the door.

The black-haired boy didn't know whether to feel relieved or upset. He shifted his vision back to Naruto who had suddenly pokerfaced. The Uchiha didn't know what the Uzumaki was doing. He wasn't entirely sure if Naruto knew what he was doing. He didn't know if Naruto was playing games with him or if he'd just imagined the whole situation in his head.

"You'd better go," Sasuke muttered, his throat feeling groggy all of a sudden, "Just throw the jacket in here before you go."

"Okay," Naruto replied, flashing a smile and walking over to the front door.

The Uchiha could hear a muffled yet happy 'Sakura!' through the door before a jacket was thrown in and closed with a click.

Sasuke closed his eyes, suddenly feeling a lot more unsure about life than he did three weeks ago.

* * *

Heh, it's been a long wait but here it is, finally.

Anyone want to tell me what their favourite chapter is so far?


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